McDonald's (MCD) competes with Wendy's (WEN), Burger King (BKC) and Yum! Brands (YUM) in the fast-food market, and is the leader in the hamburger fast-food category. McDonald's also competes with Starbucks (SBUX) in the specialty coffee market. McDonald's owns and franchises restaurants across the globe with over 32,000 restaurants in 117 countries. Of these, roughly 80% are operated by franchisees, with the balance being company owned.

We currently maintain a $78.40 price estimate for McDonald's stock, implying a roughly 5% premium to market price.

Blue-chip burger baron McDonald's (MCD) was in focus Monday morning after the company unveiled its fourth-quarter earnings. The fast-food chain reported net income of $1.24 billion, or $1.16 per share, slightly improved from its year-ago profit of $1.22 billion, or $1.11 per share. Revenue for the quarter climbed 4% to $6.21 billion.

The fourth-quarter results were more or less in line with Wall Street's expectations, but the same can't be said of its December sales. Global same-store sales rose 3.7% across the board, led by an 8.9% gain in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA). U.S. same-store sales increased 2.6% in December, while sales at restaurants open at least 13 months declined 0.5% in Europe.

Yet again, McDonald's (MCD) has asserted itself as the Big Mac Daddy of the fast-food world, reporting that its third-quarter earnings increased 10%. Proving that it does not rely solely on hamburgers and cheeseburgers, McDonald's attributed the impressive performance to blended-ice beverages and international growth.

McDonald's pulled in an impressive $1.29 per share ($1.39 billion) during the quarter, much better than last year's same-quarter results of $1.15 per share ($1.26 billion). Quarterly revenue also increased, checking in at $6.3 billion, which is 4.3% better than a year ago.

McDonald's (MCD) was down Monday. What a disappointment. How can Mickey D's be down when the rest of the market was up? Hey, it happens.

But here's the interesting thing about the shares. Even though they closed down 0.6% (in some sense, that isn't really down so much as it is flat) to $74.57, they're still rather close to the 52-week high of $76.26 -- and quite far off from the 52-week low of $53.88. There's something to be said for that these days, right?

It appears that the largest food service company in the world, McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD), had another very strong quarter during the first three months of 2007.

A few highlights: EPS at $0.62 (up 27%), revenues increased 11% to $5.4 billion, and net income of $762 million. That's all well and good, right? While I'm no fan of almost anything on the McDonald's menu, plenty of people are. And increasingly, those people live in other countries.

McDonald's international growth plans are moving forward at a good clip. Soon, McDonald's will be turning over about 1,600 restaurants in the Latin America and Caribbean to a "developmental licensee" who will franchise the locations. That's a smart strategy. Domestically, there are not much more food areas that McDonald's can hit. If it wants to continue it's positive forward momentum, it will have to continue to grow. But how? Can it grow with more varied food offerings? Questionable. But offering more healthy choices to its menu has helped it grow sales past the fast food junkie.

Growth is global these days, whether you make cars, PCs or chicken sandwiches. Creativity may have to spill from McDonald's management coffers consistently to maintain its past growth, however.