Vident Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in McDonald's Co. (NYSE:MCD) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,817 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock after buying an additional 531 shares during the period. Vident Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in McDonald's were worth $1,518,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Horan Capital Advisors LLC. acquired a new stake in McDonald's in the third quarter worth $104,000. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. acquired a new stake in McDonald's in the fourth quarter worth $109,000. Tarbox Family Office Inc. raised its holdings in McDonald's by 105.8% in the fourth quarter. Tarbox Family Office Inc. now owns 638 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $110,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares during the period. Horan Capital Management acquired a new stake in McDonald's in the fourth quarter worth $110,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in McDonald's by 219.2% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings Co. Ltd. now owns 830 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $130,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.25% of the company’s stock.

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In other news, insider Douglas M. Goare sold 13,255 shares of McDonald's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.40, for a total value of $2,192,377.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Kevin M. Ozan sold 18,636 shares of McDonald's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.69, for a total transaction of $3,087,798.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 29,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,937,562. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MCD shares. Goldman Sachs set a $190.00 target price on shares of McDonald's and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of McDonald's in a report on Friday, January 5th. JPMorgan Chase set a $186.00 price objective on shares of McDonald's and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 12th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $205.00 price objective (up from $193.00) on shares of McDonald's in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of McDonald's from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. McDonald's presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $184.03.

Shares of MCD opened at $160.08 on Friday. McDonald's Co. has a one year low of $142.26 and a one year high of $178.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $127,659.92, a PE ratio of 22.99, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.82, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of -9.04.

McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 30th. The fast-food giant reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.12. McDonald's had a net margin of 24.02% and a negative return on equity of 193.74%. The company had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.47 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. research analysts forecast that McDonald's Co. will post 7.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About McDonald's

McDonald’s Corporation (McDonald’s) operates and franchises McDonald’s restaurants. The Company’s restaurants serve a locally relevant menu of food and drinks sold at various price points in over 100 countries. The Company’s segments include U.S., International Lead Markets, High Growth Markets, and Foundational Markets and Corporate.

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&l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;size-medium wp-image-17175&q; src=&q;http://blogs-images.forbes.com/nextavenue/files/2018/01/Age-Smart-Employer-Awards-750×485.jpg?width=960&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;194&q; data-width=&q;300&q;&g; James Reed and Robert Burn work in the supply department at Silvercup Studios, moving and loading lighting and equipment

Employers tend to get a bad rap &a;mdash; &a;nbsp;often deservedly &a;mdash; for their attitudes about hiring, retaining and nurturing workers over 50. Frequently, older workers and older job applicants are perceived as lethargic, expensive and behind the times. So let me tell you about 13 employers who see things very differently: the winners and finalists of the &l;a href=&q;https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/research/age-smart-employer&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;2017 Age Smart Employer Awards&l;/a&g;.

The Age Smart Employer Award program, now in its third year, is a project of Columbia University&a;rsquo;s Columbia Aging Center at the Mailman School of Public Health. The awards, given to New York City-based businesses and nonprofits of any size, are a &a;ldquo;culture change initiative,&a;rdquo; says director Ruth Finkelstein, who is also a &l;a href=&q;http://www.nextavenue.org/showcase/influencers-aging-2016/ruth-finkelstein&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;Next Avenue Influencer in Aging&l;/a&g;.

&l;strong&g;Also on Forbes:&l;/strong&g;

&a;ldquo;We do them to call attention to the concrete and specific policies and practices that employers can use, and are using, to recruit, engage and retrain workforces of all ages, including older workers,&a;rdquo; Finkelstein said.

I was fortunate to be on the selection committee for this year&a;rsquo;s honorees and attended yesterday&a;rsquo;s inspiring ceremony in New York City&a;rsquo;s fabled Rainbow Room where the awards were given out. (Next Avenue blogger and author Kerry Hannon gave the keynote speech.)

&l;strong&g;Significance of the Age Smart Employer Awards&l;/strong&g;

&a;ldquo;We&a;rsquo;ve increased our life expectancy by 50% in the last 100 years. That&a;rsquo;s astounding and an immense achievement to be proud of. Now we have to design society for longer lives, and these awards, I think, are a linchpin of that,&a;rdquo; said Dr. Linda Fried, dean of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and a &l;a href=&q;http://www.nextavenue.org/showcase/influencers-in-aging-2015/dr-linda-p-fried&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;Next Avenue Influencer in Aging&l;/a&g;.

A hundred firms and nonprofits entered the 2017 competition, double the number in 2016, which was 2 &a;frac12; times the number of the year before. The breadth of applicants expanded, too.

The growth in the number and type of entrants is partly because more employers know about the awards and because more are adopting age-smart practices, Finkelstein said. &a;ldquo;While the finalists and winners every year have been superlative, this year the overall quality of applicants was higher,&a;rdquo; she noted. &a;ldquo;It wasn&a;rsquo;t just the biggest crop ever, it was the best.&a;rdquo;

Gary Kesner, executive vice president for Silvercup Studios (one of this year&a;rsquo;s Age Smart Employer Award winners) offered a terrific quote at the ceremony: &a;ldquo;As a mature worker myself, I can only echo Ingrid Bergman, who said: &a;lsquo;Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!&s;&q;

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The seven 2017 Age Smart Employer Award finalists were The Bronx Zoo, Diller-Quaile School of Music, Educational Alliance (a social service agency), Sew Right, Steinway &a;amp; Sons, Veselka (a Ukrainian diner) and WithumSmith + Brown (an accounting firm).

At WithumSmith + Brown, everyone has a mentor. &a;ldquo;That&a;rsquo;s near and dear to my heart,&a;rdquo; said Theresa Richardson, chief talent officer and a partner at the firm. The coaches and mentees there are required to meet three times a year. &a;ldquo;The more often you meet to revisit goals, the greater the chance of achieving the goals,&a;rdquo; said Richardson.

Here are thumbnail sketches about the six Age Smart Employer Award winners:

&l;strong&g;The 2017 Age Smart Employer Award Winners&l;/strong&g;

&l;strong&g;National Grid:&l;/strong&g; This utility company likes recruiting experienced workers from its competitors and invites retirees to come back part-time &a;mdash; to train employees and to help out during emergencies. Said Ed Hayes, National Grid&a;rsquo;s U.S. vice president for talent acquisition. &a;ldquo;People talk about the aging workforce. We just call them our workforce.&a;rdquo;

&l;strong&g;Urban Health Plan:&l;/strong&g; A nonprofit health care provider, Urban Health Plan makes a point of bringing on, keeping and caring for its older employees. &a;ldquo;You hire community members in their 50s, 60s and 70s, but you don&a;rsquo;t just hire them,&a;rdquo; said Finkelstein. &a;ldquo;You set them up for success with intensive and ongoing training and mentoring.&a;rdquo;

&l;strong&g;PKF O&a;rsquo;Connor Davies&l;/strong&g;: While large accounting firms frequently force partners to retire around age 60 (&a;ldquo;the accounting industry is not world famous for age-smart practices,&a;rdquo; joked Finkelstein) this one not only doesn&a;rsquo;t &a;mdash; it &l;em&g;hires &l;/em&g;them. &a;ldquo;We bring people into our organization who may be &a;lsquo;aged out&a;rsquo; in other organizations,&a;rdquo; said Kevin Keane, managing partner at PKF O&a;rsquo;Connor Davies, which has 742 employees. Those employees then mentor younger ones.

&a;ldquo;It&a;rsquo;s not an age thing; we just want quality, talented people,&a;rdquo; said Keane. &a;ldquo;Yesterday, I was talking to a partner who is 82 and still working seven days a week. I keep telling him he should have a flexible schedule , but that&a;rsquo;s what he wants.&a;rdquo; Keane added: &a;ldquo;If I were at a Big Four accounting firm, I&a;rsquo;d be aged out today. So I like the policy of not being aged out.&a;rdquo;

&l;strong&g;Riverdale Country School:&l;/strong&g; This Bronx-based private K-12 school is intentional about retaining teachers and staff. It offers faculty sabbaticals after 10 years, &a;ldquo;passion grants&a;rdquo; that let workers pursue their interests (from learning tango to writing fiction) and the ability to restructure jobs for less-strenuous ones (custodians have become security guards, for example). Said Dominic Randolph, head of the school: &a;ldquo;I and our team have the amazing privilege of working with people ages 4 to 92.&a;rdquo; He&a;rsquo;s especially proud of the passion grant program: &a;ldquo;It&a;rsquo;s great to see our community engaged at all ages and continuing to keep on learning throughout their lifetime. You have to keep reinventing yourself. These people do that every day and the kids are inspired by that.&a;rdquo;

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&l;strong&g;Lee Spring&l;/strong&g;: You might not think a spring manufacturer with 79 employees would be age smart, but then you don&a;rsquo;t know Lee Spring, headquartered in the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Half its workforce is over 50 (some execs started as factory laborers and its president began as a machinist 30 year ago). The Age Smart Employer Awards selection committee was also taken by the company&a;rsquo;s &a;ldquo;impressive culture and ethos of flexibility,&a;rdquo; said Finkelstein. Some employees have been allowed to move to facilities in warmer climates or work fewer hours. Fun fact: the six Lee Spring employees who came to the awards ceremony had a total of 161 years of work experience.

&l;strong&g;Silvercup Studios: &l;/strong&g;If the accounting profession isn&a;rsquo;t known for being age smart, that&a;rsquo;s doubly true for the entertainment industry. But Silvercup Studios, New York City&a;rsquo;s largest full-service film and TV production facility and where&l;em&g; Sopranos, Girls&l;/em&g; and &l;em&g;Sex and the City&l;/em&g; have filmed, is an exception. At this family-owned company, the median age of its 49 employees is over 50. Two just celebrated their 30&l;sup&g;th&l;/sup&g; anniversary with Silvercup.

&a;ldquo;We don&a;rsquo;t look at someone&a;rsquo;s age when we hire them because it doesn&a;rsquo;t matter. We&a;rsquo;re looking for people who can do the job,&a;rdquo; Kesner, 67, told me.

Being age smart is just being business smart, said Kesner: &a;ldquo;We try to encourage loyalty to our company. It&a;rsquo;s good for our business. It costs more to recruit and replace employees than to retain them.&a;rdquo; Also, he added, older employees &a;ldquo;are not necessarily looking to move up and out,&a;rdquo; have low absenteeism rates and &a;ldquo;have a maturity in handling problems; they don&a;rsquo;t get as rattled.&a;rdquo;

He closed the ceremony with these words: &a;ldquo;I look forward to a day when awards of this kind are no longer necessary, when ageism in the workplace is a thing of the past and hiring mature workers is second nature to all employers.&a;rdquo;

That&a;rsquo;s an admirable wish. But I have a feeling we&a;rsquo;ll be seeing more Age Smart Employer Awards for quite a few years ahead.&l;/p&g;

The first week of the second quarter saw four initial public offerings (IPOs) raise more than $1.1 billion in five new offerings. With six IPOs on the coming week’s calendar, the total capital raise could top $750 million, or around $1.1 billion counting the planned IPO of a blank-check company.

Last week’s largest IPO was trucking company Schneider National Inc. (NYSE: SNDR), raising $550 million, as expected, but receiving no first-day pop.

Hess Midstream Partners LP (NYSE: HESM) raised $340 million after pricing at above the expected range and getting a further first-day boost of 11%.

Enterprise software firm Okta Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) raised $187 million after pricing at the top of an increased range. The shares popped 38% on the first day of trading.

Sub-prime online lender Elevate Credit Inc. (NYSE: ELVT) raised $81 million after lowering its price to $6.50 and increasing the shares on offer from 7.7 million to 12.4 million. Shares popped 19% on the first day of trading and closed the week up 14%.

Blank-check company Forum Merger Corp. (NASDAQ: FMCIU) also completed its offering of 12.5 million units at $10 per unit.

Brazilian airline Azul SA failed to complete an IPO last week after being forced to suspend its offering for 30 days to comply with an order from a Brazilian regulator.

Through the week ending April 7, IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital reported that 29 IPOs have priced in the U.S. so far this year, up about 222% year over year. Total proceeds raised through last week equaled $11 billion. For 2016, Renaissance Capital reported a total of 105 IPOs, down 38% year over year from 170 in 2015. Total 2016 proceeds amounted to $18.8 billion compared with a 2015 total of $30 billion. Renaissance Capital does not include best efforts or blank-check companies in its totals, nor does it include IPOs that raise less than $10 million.

First up in the coming week’s IPO parade is a blank-check company, Vantage Energy Acquisition Corp., which plans to offer 40 million units at $10 per unit. The company expects to begin trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol VEACU.

Netshoes (Cayman) Ltd. is an online seller of sports and lifestyle products in Latin America. The company plans to offer 8.3 million shares in an expected price range of $18 to $20 to raise $157 million at an implied market cap of $588 million. Underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Bradesco BBI, Allen & Co., and Jefferies. Shares are expected to price Tuesday and begin trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NETS.

Cadence Bancorporation is a commercial relationship bank offering services to businesses, high net worth individuals, and retail customers. The company plans to offer 7.5 million shares in an expected price range of $19 to $21 to raise $150 million at an implied market cap of $1.65 billion. Underwriters for the offering include Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Sandler O’Neill, Keefe Bruyette Woods, Baird, Raymond James, Stephens Inc., SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, and Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Shares are expected to price Wednesday and begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CADE.

Tocagen Inc. is a clinical-stage, cancer-selective gene therapy company. The company plans to offer 7.3 million shares in an expected price range of $10 to $12 to raise $80 million at an implied market cap of $187 million. Underwriters are Leerink Partners, Evercore ISI, and Stifel. Shares are expected to price Wednesday and begin trading Thursday on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol TOCA.

Warrior Met Coal LLC is a producer and exporter of premium metallurgical coal used in making steel. The company was formed in September 2015 when certain lenders acquired assets from Walter Energy during a bankruptcy proceeding. The company plans to offer 16.7 million shares in an expected price range of $17 to $19, raising $300 million at at implied market cap of $963 million. Shares are expected to price Wednesday and begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HCC.

Yext Inc. offers a cloud-based platform that allows businesses to manage publicly accessible structured information. The company plans to offer 10.5 million shares in an expected price range of $8 to $10 to raise $95 million at an implied market cap of $905 million. Underwriters include Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, RBC Capital Markets, Pacific Crest, and Piper Jaffray. Shares are expected to price Wednesday and begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol YEXT.

More bad news from Sears. (SHLD)

The retailer, which is struggling with turnaround plans and slumping sales, said Wednesday that it’s laying off about 220 people from its corporate offices, effective immediately.

Most of the affected employees worked at Sears’ corporate headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, just outside Chicago.

“The company will provide severance and transition assistance to those who are eligible and, as always, we are committed to treating associates with compassion and respect during this difficult time,” a Sears spokesman said in a statement.

The move is part of Sears’ broader cost-cutting plans, which are an attempt to return the company to profitability.

Sears said earlier this month that it’s planning to cut $200 million this year, above and beyond the stores it already planned to close.

Though many retailers have struggled recently, Sears’ decline has been particularly severe. Sales at Sears and Kmart stores plunged over the holidays, while competitors such as Target (TGT), Macy’s (M) and Kohl’s (KSS) posted comparatively strong results.

The company has warned in the past that there’s “substantial doubt” about its long-term viability. It has racked up about $11 billion in losses since 2010, its last profitable year.

The credit rating agency Standard & Poors recently downgraded Sears Holdings to the lowest rung of junk bond status.

Sears closed hundreds of stores in 2017, and intends to shutter 103 more this spring.

It’s issued a notice to the Illinois government that more layoffs are on the way. The company said it expects to cut about 150 more employees at Hoffman Estates at the beginning of April.