Chipotle earnings beat estimates, but stock falls on weak same-store sales forecast
Chipotle Mexican Grill on Tuesday said traffic to its restaurants keeps rising, helping the company top analysts' estimates for its quarterly earnings.
However, the burrito chain disappointed investors with its same-store sales forecast for 2025 and commentary about weaker January traffic. Shares of the company fell more than 4% in extended trading.
Here's what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
The company's net sales climbed 13.1% to $2.85 billion. Same-store sales rose 5.4%, narrowly missing StreetAccount estimates of 5.7% growth.
Transactions rose 4% in the quarter, continuing the burrito chain's streak of higher traffic. For the past year, Chipotle has outpaced the broader restaurant industry, which has seen traffic slump as many consumers opt to cook their meals to save money.
But sales softened at the end of December, which executives attributed to Christmas and New Year's Day falling on Wednesdays.
However, sales have been "volatile" so far in 2025, CFO Adam Rymer said on the company's conference call.The weather, including the wildfires in Los Angeles, has been having a larger impact on traffic than it did last year, according to executives.
"While we believe underlying transaction trends are healthy and we have a strong plan for the year, we do compare against progressively tougher comps in the first half of the year and therefore are guiding to a low to mid single digit comp for the full year," Rymer said.
Wall Street was anticipating same-store sales growth of 5.4% for the full year, according to StreetAccount estimates.
Chipotle's forecast doesn't include the impact of any tariffs that may be implemented on Canadian and Mexican imports. Executives