Filed under: Marketing and advertising, McDonald’s (MCD), Yum Brands (YUM), Wendy’s Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC), Stocks to Buy

McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) announced its same-store sales results for the month of April Thursday, and the data indicate a healthy fast-food business (”healthy fast food” — isn’t that an oxymoron?).

Global comps as a whole increased 5%. Comps for European locations increased 6.3%, and the Asia/Pacific/Middle East/Africa segment saw a 7.8% rise in same-store sales. McDonald’s restaurants in the States increased an anemic 2%. The weak domestic sales really need to be addressed so that they can pull more weight and add to the cool story that’s McDonald’s.

The stock has been a pretty decent performer over the last several months, rising over 6% over the three-month timeframe, and over the one-month period, it is up over 7%. And the longer-period returns from the past are even more impressive. Imagine how McDonald’s stock would perform if management figured out how to get people to visit the U.S.’s Golden Arches more often. I suppose April’s performance should be praised since March saw a decline in U.S. comps, as this article makes plain, but that depreciation was the first one in five years, and that says to me that McDonald’s needs to be careful.

It’s all about the marketing, of course. There are a lot of choices out there — Burger King (NYSE: BKC), Wendy’s (NYSE: WEN) and Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) — so I think promotion of the brand is key. Some will disagree and say that menus and pricing are the huge drivers — they’re important, don’t get me wrong, but perhaps McDonald’s needs to take a cue from Burger King and its campaign with the creepy-king thing — those commercials are clever. Still, if this comps reports says anything, it says that you shouldn’t count the clown out — McDonald’s is a blue-chip stock that’s near a 52-week high, and not only is it a great long-term/core holding, but it’s also quite possibly an interesting shorter-term idea as well.

Disclosure: I don’t own shares in any company mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Deals, Marketing and advertising, Clear Channel Commun (CCU), Economic data

Shares of radio broadcaster Clear Channel Communications Inc. (NYSE: CCU) were slightly up in early trading after the company posted higher first-quarter profit boosted in part by gains in its outdoor advertising unit. Though, the company wasn’t able to beat analysts’ predictions as the weak economy put pressure on the overall advertising market.

Clear Channel Communications announced that its quarterly profit surged to $799.7 million, or $1.61 per share. The income figures were definitely something to cheer about. During its first quarter last year, the company had net income of $102.2 million or 21 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, earnings for the quarter would have been $0.19 per share. Analysts’ forecast (which typically exclude one-time items) was for $0.21 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

The media and advertising display company also stated that quarterly revenue rose 3.9% to $1.56 billion, compared with $1.51 billion reported in the same period a year ago, helped by favorable foreign exchange rates; excluding the effect of the week dollar, revenue rose only 1%. Analysts had been anticipating to see slower sales of $1.53 billion.

Clear Channel is currently in the process of trying to go private. The company’s shareholders approved a merger agreement with a group led by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners. But the deal fell into litigation this year when the companies sued their bankers who wanted to pull out of their financing commitment. In the light of those troubles, it looks like for the moment the radio broadcaster is unable to estimate a closing date and is not even certain that a closing will happen.

Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the on the web investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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