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Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG - Free Report) closed at $768.81 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.62% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 3.25%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 3.84%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 3.06%.

Coming into today, shares of the Mexican food chain had lost 12.09% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector lost 5.18%, while the S&P 500 lost 9.87%.

CMG will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $3.79, up 11.47% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.50 billion, up 14.71% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $18.39 per share and revenue of $6.31 billion, which would represent changes of +30.89% and +12.97%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for CMG should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.13% higher within the past month. CMG is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that CMG has a Forward P/E ratio of 42.07 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 19.24.

Also, we should mention that CMG has a PEG ratio of 2.18. 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. The Retail - Restaurants was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.02 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 66, which puts it in the top 26% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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