If You Had Invested in McDonald’s in 2019, Here’s How Much Richer You Would Be Today
Written by
Jordan Rosenfeld
Edited by
Molly Sullivan
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McDonald’s restaurant is such a well-known brand with impressive staying power that multiple generations can share memories from their youths of its distinct golden arches as the franchise celebrates 70 years this year. The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in 1955 by Ray Kroc, who was inspired by Richard and Maurice McDonald’s burger joint Speedee Service System in San Bernardino, California.
It’s rare to find a brand with that much longevity that is as well loved as the fast-food franchise, which still serves up customer favorites like Chicken McNuggets and Happy Meals with a cast of new and old characters, from red-haired Ronald McDonald himself to Grimace and the recently resurrected Hamburglar. With this long of a history, surely McDonald’s has been a good investment, right?
Here’s a look at what an investment in this company would be worth now.
An Early Initial Public Offering
While the fast-food chain has always offered its food at low prices, its share prices have tended to trend on the higher side, fulfilling what investors like Warren Buffett say you should look for in a stock: a company that will stand the test of fads, time and continue to offer products or services consumers want.
McDonald’s was so successful so quickly that it made its initial public offering on the stock market in 1965, just 10 years after its opening, where it trades as MCD. As of February 2025, the company has a market capitalization (the value of the company multiplied by its total traded shares) of over $220 billion dollars.
A New CEO
McDonald’s has seen a wide variety of CEOs, but in 2019, its latest CEO, Chris Kempczinski, was promoted up from executive vice president of strategy, business development and innovation, where he’d been since 2015. He brought more than 25 years of experience in global consumer companies, including at PepsiCo and Kraft Foods, to his role.
Declining Sales but a Recovery
Stock prices are affected by everything from estimated stock performance to consumer responses to global conditions. McDonald’s, like many companies, saw a dip in sales during the pandemic, but rebounded. And while it has long since recovered from those losses, and most recently met quarterly earnings expectations, the company still failed to meet some of Wall Street’s estimates for its fourth quarter, according to one news report.
Additionally, what they call “same-store” sales took a hit in October through December 2024 after an E. coli outbreak was linked to slivered onions in some McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. Yet another report showed that McDonald’s stock has been on an upswing due to the company’s expansion in other parts of the world, namely the Middle East, Japan and some European countries. The company has a strong record of bouncing back from disappointing performance.
How Much You’d Have Today
If you’d bought some McDonald’s stock in 2019, the year Kempczinski took over as CEO, each share would have cost you around $172.71 as of Nov. 15 of that year. If you held onto that stock until today, with MCD trading at $307.37 on Feb. 11, 2025, you’d have gained $134.66 per share. If you owned 100 shares, you’d be $13,466 richer. If you owned 500 shares, you’d be $67,330 richer, and if you owned 1,000 shares, you’d be $134,660 richer and so on. Not too shabby for a business founded on greasy French fries and slabs of beef.
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