Many analysts raised their price targets for Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.'s stock, following the company’s solid earnings and sales report.
On Wednesday, the fast-food chain of restaurants reported fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.72, which far outpaced the $1.37 a share figure expected by analysts (based on Refinitiv data).
Revenues of $1.23 billion for the quarter beat estimate of $1.194 billion. The company’s same-store sales growth of +6.1% exceeded analysts’ expected +4.49%. (based on Refinitiv data).
Chipotle’s digital orders surged +65.9% in the quarter, and contributed to 12.9% of its sales. Chipotle is reportedly upping the ante on its online market, by upgrading its kitchens, boosting pickup shelves for displaying online orders, and testing out its drive-through windows services that allow customers to pick up what they ordered online.
Several analysts seem to believe that there’s strong potential in the restaurant chain’s recent performance. Morgan Stanley, for example upgraded its price target for Chipotle stock to $617 from $600. Bank of America raised the target to $400 from $340. J.P. Morgan revised it to $550 from $500. However, some analysts, such as Goldman Sachs, were somewhat cautious on their outlook on the stock.
The stock was up more than +13% in early trading Thursday.