Chipotle Turns Cautious on Consumer Sentiment. Is the Stock Still a Long-term Buy?

After warning during its fourth-quarter conference call that 2025 was off to a tough start in January, fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) found that traffic never really recovered; it reported its first same-store sales decline since 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The stock largely shrugged off these disappointing results, although as of this writing it's still down more than 18% on the year.Let's dig into Chipotle's most recent results to see when the company may get back on track, and whether the stock's recent weakness is a buying opportunity.After seeing sales fall 2% for the month of January, Chipotle management guided for mostly flat same-store sales for Q1. At the time, it blamed severe weather, the Los Angeles wildfires, and an unfavorable calendar shift (New Year's Day fell on a Wednesday, delaying the return of consumers to their regular routines) for its poor start to the year, but it thought it would begin to see a recovery in February.Continue reading

Apr 27, 2025 - 19:07

Chipotle Turns Cautious on Consumer Sentiment. Is the Stock Still a Long-term Buy?

After warning during its fourth-quarter conference call that 2025 was off to a tough start in January, fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) found that traffic never really recovered; it reported its first same-store sales decline since 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The stock largely shrugged off these disappointing results, although as of this writing it's still down more than 18% on the year.

Let's dig into Chipotle's most recent results to see when the company may get back on track, and whether the stock's recent weakness is a buying opportunity.

After seeing sales fall 2% for the month of January, Chipotle management guided for mostly flat same-store sales for Q1. At the time, it blamed severe weather, the Los Angeles wildfires, and an unfavorable calendar shift (New Year's Day fell on a Wednesday, delaying the return of consumers to their regular routines) for its poor start to the year, but it thought it would begin to see a recovery in February.