McDonald’s shares close higher on Wednesday, company acquires tech firm Apprente in attempt to automate the drive-thru

McDonald’s Corporation (MCD) said earlier this week that it intended to acquire tech firm Apprente, as the fast-food chain seeks to automate the drive-thru.

Financial terms of the deal, however, remained undisclosed.

McDonald’s shares closed higher for the sixth time in the past eleven trading sessions in New York on Wednesday. The stock edged up 0.25% ($0.52) to $210.20, after touching an intraday high at $211.57 and an intraday low at $208.56.

Shares of McDonald’s Corporation have risen 18.38% so far in 2019 compared with a 19.71% gain for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2018, McDonald’s Corp’s stock went up 3.17%, thus, it outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 6.24% loss.

Apprente, established in 2017, employs artificial intelligence in order to understand drive-thru orders, which would reduce service times.

Apprente’s staff will be the founding members of McD Tech Labs group, which is to become part of McDonald’s global technology team, the burger chain said.

In March, McDonald’s disclosed the purchase of Dynamic Yield, a company focused on personalization and decision logic technology, in a deal estimated at over $300 million.

After the acquisition of Dynamic Yield was finalized, the machine learning technology was deployed in over 8 000 McDonald’s drive-thrus across the United States. With the help of such a technology drive-thru menus are changed depending on time of day, weather, traffic and other parameters.

McDonald’s had said that it planned to integrate Dynamic Yield’s technology into nearly all of its drive-thrus across Australia and the United States by the end of this year.

Analyst stock price forecast and recommendation

According to CNN Money, the 26 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding McDonald’s Corporation’s stock price, have a median target of $230.00, with a high estimate of $255.00 and a low estimate of $210.00. The median estimate represents a 9.42% upside compared to the closing price of $210.20 on September 11th.

The same media also reported that at least 22 out of 31 surveyed investment analysts had rated McDonald’s Corporation’s stock as “Buy”, while 7 – as “Hold”.