If You Invested $1,000 In McDonald's 10 Years Ago, Here's How Much Money You'd Have Today

A businessman by the name of Ray Kroc uncovered a small burger restaurant in California in 1954, and the rest is fast food history. McDonald's may have the humble beginnings of a single location, yet in the past 70 years the legendary fast food restaurant franchise has ballooned into one of the largest food service brands in the world. Blue, white, and gray collar workers alike frequent the restaurant chain. Today it counts over 36,000 restaurants located in over 100 countries around the globe, per the company's website.

McDonald's stock has a long and distinguished history of success for its investors. MCD trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today. The company's stock boasts a many decades long history of stability coupled with consistent growth in share price. It also pays out a dependable and steady dividend income that investors have been able to rely on over time.

If you had invested $1,000 in McDonald's 10 years ago, you would have more than tripled your original investment. Besides this, you would have benefited from a 48-year-long dividend growth streak payout. The outlook for McDonald's remains strong today and going forward.

Ray Kroc turned out to be the genius businessman who would turn the fast food concept into a global success. The McDonald's brothers began with their first McDonald's barbecue restaurant in 1940 featuring a drive-in and car hop service. In 1955, Kroc signed a deal to open the first McDonald's System, Inc. By 1961 Kroc's McDonald's Corporation had bought the full rights to the McDonald brothers' company for $2.7 million, according to the restaurant corporate website.

Franchise founder Kroc started with a vision for 1,000 McDonald's in just the continental United States. The corporation's success soon eclipsed his wildest hopes with the fast food chain opening locations in Puerto Rico and Canada starting in 1967. Today's McDonald's boasts over 36,000 restaurant locations, allowing one to buy a Big Mac all over the world.

McDonald's outlook for the future remains strong, in spite of some challenges in the business. This year the company planned to open another 1,900 new locations, with over 400 of them found in the United States. Global sales slipped slightly by 1.5% while those in the United States grew by 1.3%. Despite this, the company's consolidated revenues saw stronger growth of 3%. Meanwhile, the company continued its long and storied tradition of increasing its dividends in raising the third-quarter cash payout by 6% to $1.77 per share, per McDonald's corporate investor website.

Analysts still consider McDonald's Corporation to be among the best income stocks in which to invest now. Yahoo! Finance noted a 10.2% potential for gains as of December 13. These forecasts are on top of the 2.39% dividend yield the stock currently enjoys. Even though the company acknowledges a tough operating climate, it remains a popular stock pick with hedge funds who own holdings amounting to more than $2.3 billion.

If you had invested $1,000 in McDonald's 10 years ago, you would have seen handsome returns on your capital. Per the McDonald's investment calculator found on their corporate stock website, $1,000 put into the company stock on January 1, 2015 would have grown by 308.23% as of mid December 2024 (with dividends reinvested). Your $1,000 stake would have increased to over $4,082 in the past decade.

This impressive gain represents a compound annual growth rate of 15.18%. Although it is a solid performance from the McDonald's stock, investors should remember that there has been some volatility along the way. According to the NYSE McDonald's webpage, the past 52 week high reached $317.90 while the low in the same period was notched at $243.53. Still, the stock has proven to be a great place for retirement savings to boost your net worth.