McDonalds Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Short or Long?

There are some divergent opinions on McDonald's this morning on Wall St. Joe Buckley of Bear Sterns (NYSE: BSC) has downgraded McDonald's to Peer Perform from Outperform. For his part, on the conference call, Mr. Buckley asked management about what "caught up" the company in the US and if there was a possibility that this could seep into Europe, especially the UK.

David Palmer, not former President Palmer, who is Yahoo's star analyst for MCD maintained his Buy AND his price target ($67). Jason West - Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) maintained a Buy, but was one of five analysts who lowered his target price. West dropped it nearly 10% from $66 to $60. According to West, "While we agree that a slowdown in the U.S. is a concern, we do not see significant risk to earnings per share estimates at this point and continue to believe McDonald's is well-positioned for sustainable long-term growth in the U.S., Europe and Asia."

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) symbolically increased its estimates by $0.01 for this fiscal year and next. They also disagree with any type of 'peer perform' rating, stating: "We maintain that MCD offers investors the best opportunity in restaurants today from a fundamental strength standpoint as well as an impressive returns profile."