Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) Surpasses Market Returns: Some Facts Worth Knowing

By Zacks Equity Research | December 18, 2025, 5:45 PM

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) closed the most recent trading day at $37.63, moving +1.69% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.79%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.14%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 1.38%.

The Mexican food chain's stock has climbed by 19.35% in the past month, exceeding the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 0.48% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.87%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Chipotle Mexican Grill in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on February 3, 2026. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $0.24, reflecting a 4% decrease from the same quarter last year. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $2.98 billion, indicating a 4.91% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.16 per share and revenue of $11.94 billion, which would represent changes of +3.57% and +5.51%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Chipotle Mexican Grill. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.36% decrease. Chipotle Mexican Grill is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Looking at its valuation, Chipotle Mexican Grill is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 31.87. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.14, so one might conclude that Chipotle Mexican Grill is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that CMG currently has a PEG ratio of 3.78. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Retail - Restaurants industry held an average PEG ratio of 2.36.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 182, placing it within the bottom 27% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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