McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) has enjoyed the status of being the greatest restaurant story in history. In our lifetime, or in any for that matter, the company grew from a start-up to a Dow Jones Industrial Average component with over 32,000 restaurants in its global empire. But what gets interesting is that McDonald’s is not just the world’s largest restaurant chain. McDonald’s has roughly seen its share price double in the last five years and now the stock is effectively worth as much as the entire public universe of restaurant chains in the United States. The tally is about $72.5 billion for the rest of the public restaurant universe versus about $69.8 billion for that of McDonald’s. This begs a question…. Can McDonald’s keep growing in this manner?

We tallied up the likes of Yum! Brands, Inc., (NYSE:YUM), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), Darden Restaurants, Inc., (NYSE: DRI), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG), Tim Horton’s Inc. (NYSE: THI), Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, Inc. (NYSE: WEN), Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC), Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA), Brinker International Inc. (NASDAQ: EAT), Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ: JACK), Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD), Papa John’s International Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA), Sonic Corp. (NASDAQ: SONC), and Domino’s Pizza (NYSE: DPZ).

And there are more than twice as many public restaurant and dining companies not reviewed for the restaurant chain tally and more which we showed in the chart of the restaurant and dining stocks. As far as the restaurant counts? That is not even close either. The above named restaurant chains have a combined tally of about 110,000 stores versus the 32,000+ from McDonald’s. Not even close, at least when you consider the nominal figure. This is one of those extraordinary moments in time where there almost exists the world’s greatest investment conundrum…. A value trap against its universe of peers, yet a value trap that still manages to represent growth a reasonable price