Chipotle Shares Are Soaring
Q4 receipts came in at $844.1 million versus $826.3 million. Earnings of $2.52 were in line with expectations.
Comparable store sales were up 9.3%, beating expectations for 6.7%, and the firm revised its 2014 same-store-sales guidance slightly higher.
As a result, Morgan Stanley's John Glass and Jake Bartlett raised their 2014 SSS growth target to 6.9% from 5.8%.
"Consumers took a break from online shopping and stepped into the bitter cold to buy burritos en masse in 4Q, as CMG again showed is market dominance and, in our view, long runway of growth," they wrote. "Increased costs limit EPS upside (though pricing should help), but we expect CMG to hold its premium multiple."
Morgan Stanley has an "overweight" rating on the shares with a price target of $594.
Here's the stock chart:
