Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) Exceeds Market Returns: Some Facts to Consider

By Zacks Equity Research | January 02, 2026, 5:50 PM

In the latest close session, Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) was up +1.32% at $37.49. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.19%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.66%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.03%.

Shares of the Mexican food chain have appreciated by 8.35% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 1.45%, and the S&P 500's gain of 0.54%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Chipotle Mexican Grill in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on February 3, 2026. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $0.24, showcasing a 4% downward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $2.97 billion, up 4.27% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.16 per share and revenue of $11.91 billion, which would represent changes of +3.57% and 0%, respectively, from the prior year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Chipotle Mexican Grill. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 0.19% downward. Chipotle Mexican Grill is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Chipotle Mexican Grill is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 30.45. This represents a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 18.43.

Also, we should mention that CMG has a PEG ratio of 3.61. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Retail - Restaurants industry stood at 1.96 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 205, finds itself in the bottom 17% echelons of all 250+ industries.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming 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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