Why Are These High-Profile Franchises Suddenly Going Public?

Last year, investment management and capital markets firm Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded stock in McDonald's from a buy to a neutral rating. This type of move is a daily occurrence on Wall Street, but for the fast-food giant, it was another matter. McDonald's first-quarter results had shown a 1.2 percent decrease in U.S. same-store sales and a 1 percent drop globally. Bad news, especially since a 1.8 percent decline in October 2012--the company's first negative-growth month in nine years--led to the ouster of the president of McDonald's USA and rattled the burger behemoth's confidence. Missing earnings estimates and month-over-month sales goals is bad enough. But another reason the Big Mac and its stock took a shellacking was an April report by Janney analyst Mark Kalinowski, who monitors many of the big players in the restaurant industry. His proprietary McDonald's Franchisee Survey is one of the most influential documents affecting the company's stock.

Franchisees (whose survey opinions are presented anonymously) complained that the new McWraps, while