McDonald’s Corporation (MCD), The Wendy’s Co (WEN), Burger King Worldwide Inc (BKW): Are New Menu Items Enough to Boost Fast Food Sales?

Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW)’s global comparable sales inched up 0.6% in the second quarter, with adjusted EBITDA increasing 2.7% in the same period, year over year.

Shareholder rewards that are second to none
Although McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is admittedly struggling to grow sales at a satisfactory pace, it has a track record of rewarding shareholders that is hard to beat.

The company returned $1.1 billion to shareholders in the first quarter alone, through a combination of dividend payments and share buybacks. McDonald’s has increased its dividend every year since its first dividend payment in 1976.

In an investing environment where interest rates are still low by historical standards and safe high-yielding stocks are hard to come by, McDonald’s 3.3% dividend is very attractive to income-seekers. McDonald’s offers a better payout than The Wendy’s Co (NASDAQ:WEN) and Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW), which yield 2.5% and 1.2%, respectively. In addition, it’s been four consecutive quarters without a dividend increase for McDonald’s, so expect the operator of the Golden Arches to increase its payout in just a couple of months.

Wendy’s is firing on all cylinders, and growth investors may be able to squeeze out further capital gains from its turnaround. Whether the company is able to meaningfully steal market share from McDonald’s over the long term, however, remains to be seen.

Conclusion
For the time being, both Wendy’s and McDonald’s are diversifying their menus beyond the tried and true, which could energize shareholder returns through price appreciation and dividend payouts.

The article Are New Menu Items Enough to Boost Fast Food Sales? originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Robert Ciura.

Robert Ciura owns shares of McDonald’s. The Motley Fool recommends Burger King Worldwide and McDonald’s. The Motley Fool owns shares of McDonald’s.

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