McArabia Chicken

When listening to Peter Lynch’s philosophy, he touches on an investing research approach that involves talking to customers, employees, and business partners of a company.  Philip Fisher also talks about the scuttlebutt approach of finding out as much as you can about a company.  Most of us probably won’t have a chance to talk to a company’s managers or visit their facilities but we can quite easily research the customer’s perspective.

Today, I find myself in an international airport in the Middle East.  Looking for something to eat, I venture to the airport’s food court.  The food court provides a variety of sub sandwich shops, Indian food, fried chicken, and fast food hamburger joints.  As I scan the options, I see a plastic Ronald McDonald smiling at me.  Because I own a VERY small portion of MCD I figured I should probably eat where I’m invested.

As it turns out, McDonald’s is the busiest joint in the food court.  Perusing the trimmed down menu of standard McDonald’s offerings, I notice something new I’ve never seen before: McArabia Chicken.  I decided to order it and it was quite tasty.  I’ve read the stories of McDonald’s international expansion but I’m still a bit surprised to see it thriving in a Middle Eastern airport.

I’m chalking this up as a bonus research opportunity on a company I plan on making a significant pillar of my portfolio.  I recently watched an older Q&A session with Warren Buffett where he talked about how he likes companies that “travel well”.  What he meant by that is he likes it when a company can do well internationally.  For a food establishment to travel well is no small feat in my opinion.  After finishing up my McArabia Chicken with a Coca-Cola Light (aka Diet Coke in the U.S.), I have even stronger feelings towards MCD.

Hungry for Dividends? How about some McDonald’s?

My hunger for dividends continues to grow so I decided to make a tiny buy of McDonald’s (MCD) with LOYAL3.  I really like being able to periodically buy $10-$20 of a company’s stock without having to pay a commission.  Hopefully, LOYAL3 will come up with a Roth IRA option someday.

Now, back to MCD.  I’ve been overlooking their stock because I don’t eat a lot of fast-food but I will occasionally make a stop at McDonald’s.  What I didn’t realize is how successful their dividend-paying stock has been.  Using a common sense approach I guess it shouldn’t be much of a surprise considering their worldwide footprint.  According to their website, McDonald’s is in more than 100 countries which is quite impressive considering there is a food product that is so popular on a global scale.

I did a quick review of MCD’s stock info on their company website and found a couple of tidbits that caught my eye.  As of the date of this posting, MCD has increased its dividend every year since 1976 and has split 12 times since 1965.  This sounds like a fairly safe bet with a history of growth.  I can’t wait for the first dividend to show up in June.  It will be quite small because I made a small buy but it will be a dividend payment nonetheless.

I plugged in “MCD” at StockSplitHistory.com and a $10K investment 10 years ago would be worth $53K+ today.  Not a bad investment in my opinion.