McDonald’s Turnaround Plan Lets Down Investors Seeking More

McDonald’s Corp.’s turnaround plan presented Monday offered many of the corporate fix-up standards: a leadership reorganization, cost cuts and plans to return cash to shareholders. Yet investors were hoping for more.

While analysts said the moves Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook announced were steps in the right direction, his presentation lacked more radical changes like splitting off McDonald’s land holdings. Others found the plan lacking specific solutions to the chain’s most pressing problems, such as its bloated menu, slow service and the perception that its food is low quality. The shares fell 1.7 percent in New York, and the company’s debt rating was cut by Standard & Poor’s.