McDonald's Corporation owns, operates, and franchises restaurants under the McDonald's brand in the United States and internationally. It offers food and beverages, including hamburgers and cheeseburgers, various chicken sandwiches, fries, shakes, frozen desserts, sundaes, soft serve cones, cookies, pies, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages; and full or limited breakfast, as well as sells various other products during limited-time promotions. …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Consistently Above PeersGross margin at 57.4% (top 4%) and operating margin at 46.1% (top 0%) indicate strong pricing power.
Margins Stable Across CyclesOperating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.72), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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McDonald's Corporation ranks #4 of 57
scored companies in Restaurants by moat score — the top 7%.
The widest moat in the group is Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM)
at 83/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near MCD in Restaurants
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 83
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 90
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 63
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 66
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 88
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
McDonald's Corporation (MCD) scores 79 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #4 of 57 scored companies in Restaurants, the top 7%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 56 companies in Restaurants. Its strongest defense is Customer Stickiness (90/100) and its weakest is Capital Efficiency (63/100).
How does McDonald's Corporation compare with other Restaurants companies?
McDonald's Corporation ranks #4 of 57 scored companies in Restaurants by moat score. The widest moat in Restaurants is Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are Domino's Pizza Inc (DPZ) at 80 just above it and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) at 78 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 56 companies in Restaurants. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is McDonald's Corporation scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for McDonald's Corporation?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and MCD scores: Pricing Power (88), Cost Advantage (83), Customer Stickiness (90), Capital Efficiency (63), Resilience (66), Scale & Market Position (88). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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