Shares Of McDonald's Haven't Seen A Run Like This In 50 Years

The rally McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) has seen since it announced its first-quarter earnings beat before the open on April 25 dwarfs any upward move in the history of the stock.

The stock closed at $134.23 on April 24. On Thursday, McDonald’s shares closed at an all-time high of $152.33.

McDonald’s also paid its quarterly dividend Thursday, which brought the shares down nearly $0.25.

The rally comes as restaurants serving specialized “gourmet” burgers are more prevalent than ever. The number of premium burger outlets has nearly quadrupled since 2005 to over 2,700, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The cost of these “better” burgers is steep: A $13 burger, as the Wall Street Journal article discusses, is unaffordable for the average person to eat regularly. But consumers are hard-pressed to cook a burger at home as cheap as the ones sold at McDonald’s.

More On The Rally

Since April 25, McDonald’s shares have closed at a new all-time high 19 times out of the 28 market sessions since.

This has amounted to a 14.18 percent rise — a dollar value increase of $18.92.

The stock is up 25.2 percent year to date, and the parent company of competitor Burger King, Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE: QSR) is up 28.58 percent over the same period.

For context, in the period between June 2011 September 2015, McDonald’s shares moved from $80 to $103 — only $4 more than in the last month.

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