Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG): Jim Cramer Warns of Market Heat Despite Strength

We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Commented on These 8 Stocks Recently. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer commented on recently.

On Wednesday, Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, shared his thoughts on a few major market developments, including the future of AI infrastructure and Dollar Tree’s decision to sell its Family Dollar division.

“After visiting the GTC event last week, I came away with a feeling of confidence about the growth of AI even though I’m not sure the AI infrastructure buildout can continue at the same rapid pace. Today’s market certainly said that things are slowing and some people think it’s slowing dramatically. I don’t see that.”

READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Discussed These 9 Stocks Recently and Jim Cramer’s Latest Lightning Round: 7 Stocks in Focus.

In addition to his comments on AI, Cramer weighed in on the discount variety store operator’s announcement that it would sell off its Family Dollar division for $1 billion. He could not help but criticize the deal, pointing out that the company had initially acquired Family Dollar for approximately $9 billion in cash and stock a decade ago. He went on to say:

“So now that we know that they never had a plan, there was no integration, they were run as two separate outfits, even as Family Dollar seemed like a doomed chain on its own, descended from mediocrity… to tragedy, what do we have to say here? Could there never be any accountability for this lame brain obliteration of capital?… But hey, you know what? At least we won’t have Family Dollar to kick around anymore.”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 8 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on March 26. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 83

Cramer made a comment on Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) in light of tariffs as he said:

“Chipotle? Alright, so Chipotle, I don’t want to be a weasel here, but it sells at 38 times earnings and that kind of stock is going to take a little bit of heat just because the market’s going to be down off the tariff news. But it is the kind of stock you would buy after the tariff news is digested and it’s, but it is gonna feel like it’s, you’re digesting something that’s real bad tasting.”

Chipotle (NYSE:CMG) operates a popular chain of restaurants that specializes in serving a variety of Mexican-inspired dishes. ClearBridge Investments stated the following regarding the company in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“We also initiated a position in fast casual restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG). The recent pullback in shares related to a moderation in industry-wide restaurant sales and CEO Brian Niccol’s August departure created an attractive entry point into a company with industry-leading unit economics in a still underpenetrated market. Chipotle plans to double its store footprint over time while executing initiatives to increase volume growth through technology enhancements, reduced mobile order friction and higher production during peak hours. Better throughput, technological integration and improved mix should help to drive continued margin expansion. Chipotle further diversifies the portfolio, adding to consumer discretionary where we have historically had less exposure.”

Overall, CMG ranks 2nd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer commented on recently. While we acknowledge the potential of CMG as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CMG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.