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Largest McDonald's franchisee worldwide, operating McDonald's restaurants exclusively across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Largest McDonald's franchisee worldwide, operating McDonald's restaurants exclusively across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Operates most of its restaurants itself and sells food directly to customers, then pays McDonald's a royalty on sales under its master franchise rights. Brazil is the biggest of its markets, and currency swings across Latin America matter because it reports in dollars. Founder Woods Staton bought the rights from McDonald's in 2007.
In one line: A Latin American McDonald's master franchisee.
Moat: narrow (scale, brand, regulatory licence). Exclusive, long-term master franchise rights to the McDonald's brand across Latin America.
Headquarters: Montevideo, Uruguay · Founded: 2007 · Employees: 96,782
Size Arcos Dorados (ARCO) is a United States Consumer Discretionary company (Restaurants) with a market value of $1.45B, the 2012th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $6.98 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 22.6%, against +27.0% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 10.8% over the last twelve months (peer median +5.5%); the operating margin is 6.0% (peer median 6.7%).
Valuation It trades at 9.1× forward earnings against a peer median of 23.9× (cheapest of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -4% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +19%, so the hurdle is -22 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 2.2 points above its cost of capital (6.3% WACC).
Credit Arcos Dorados has 1 bond outstanding ($600M), rated BBB- by the agencies and trading like BB+ at a weighted spread of 154 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 2.4% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 12 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.98B | $4.68B | $4.47B | $4.33B | $3.62B |
| Revenue growth | — | +5% | +3% | +20% | — |
| Gross profit | $617M | $577M | $591M | $590M | $492M |
| EBITDA | $509M | $566M | $507M | $458M | $384M |
| Net income | $257M | $212M | $149M | $181M | $140M |
| Free cash flow | $95.3M | $15.0M | -$60.8M | $21.9M | $128M |
| Capital expenditure | $230M | $281M | $328M | $360M | $217M |
| Total debt | $2.20B | $2.25B | $1.72B | $1.69B | $1.56B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | ARCO | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -14.0% | +3.0% | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -22.6% | +27.0% | lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -28.4% | -12.2% | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +10.8% | +5.5% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 6.0% | 6.7% | 10th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 9.1× | 23.9× | cheapest of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -3.5% | 11.2% | 3rd least demanding of 20 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +18.7% | +12.3% | 7th highest of 20 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -22.2 pp | -1.5 pp | 2nd least demanding of 20 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +2.2 pp | +0.1 pp | 10th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 6.6× | 11.9× | 3rd cheapest of 17 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.8× | 3.3× | 7th most indebted of 18 |
| Bond spread | 154 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arcos Dorados ARCO | United States | $1.45B | -23% | +11% | 6% | 9.1× | -3.5% | +18.7% |
| Cracker Barrel Old Country Store CBRL | United States | $1.45B | +106% | -5% | 0% | 30.3× | 14.0% | +3.3% |
| Sweetgreen SG | United States | $1.43B | +72% | -1% | -18% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Domino's Pizza Enterprises DMP.AX | Australia | $1.48B | +48% | -11% | 5% | 16.9× | 17.9% | -1.4% |
| Monogatari 3097.T | Japan | $1.50B | +43% | +22% | 8% | 25.4× | 2.0% | +18.8% |
| Colowide 7616.T | Japan | $1.51B | +21% | +16% | 4% | n/a | 13.6% | +12.3% |
| Wendy's WEN | United States | $1.55B | +12% | -1% | 13% | 17.9× | 2.4% | +4.7% |
| J D Wetherspoon JDW.L | United Kingdom | $1.33B | +69% | +5% | 5% | 19.6× | 7.7% | +23.7% |
| Guangzhou Restaurant 603043.SS | China | $1.31B | 0% | +9% | 11% | 17.3× | -3.5% | +10.4% |
| Travel Food Services TRAVELFOOD.NS | India | $1.63B | -6% | -2% | 30% | 31.7× | 13.0% | +15.6% |
| Devyani International DEVYANI.NS | India | $1.68B | +8% | +14% | 4% | 323.9× | 52.1% | +37.6% |
| Domino's Pizza DOM.L | United Kingdom | $1.19B | +24% | +6% | 15% | 13.1× | 9.5% | +6.3% |
| BJ's Restaurants BJRI | United States | $1.18B | +30% | +4% | 3% | 22.5× | 26.8% | +12.4% |
| Xiaocaiyuan International 0999.HK | Hong Kong | $1.17B | +16% | +3% | 15% | 13.1× | -9.6% | +15.8% |
| Guzman y Gomez GYG.AX | Australia | $1.82B | +55% | +19% | 17% | 51.0× | 32.7% | +34.2% |
| Yoshinoya 9861.T | Japan | $1.84B | +42% | +10% | 4% | 45.5× | 11.2% | +5.8% |
| SSP SSPG.L | United Kingdom | $1.87B | +17% | +5% | 7% | 13.9× | 2.6% | +20.5% |
| Ohsho Food Service 9936.T | Japan | $1.11B | -1% | 0% | 7% | 27.5× | 4.2% | +7.7% |
| Westlife Foodworld WESTLIFE.NS | India | $1.08B | +31% | +10% | 5% | 343.5× | 49.0% | +21.7% |
| Ichibanya 7630.T | Japan | $1.06B | +21% | +8% | 6% | 57.3× | 12.2% | +8.2% |
| Doutor Nichires 3087.T | Japan | $1.03B | +33% | +8% | 7% | 16.3× | -4.7% | +10.6% |
Arcos Dorados has 1 bond outstanding with $600M face value. The agencies rate it BBB-; its bonds trade like BB+. Weighted yield 6.19%, a spread of 154 bp over government bonds.