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Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) closed at $1,263.35 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.51% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.61%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.51%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.87%.

Heading into today, shares of the Mexican food chain had lost 2.75% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 4.77% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.08% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from CMG as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be October 21, 2020. The company is expected to report EPS of $3.37, down 11.78% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.58 billion, up 12.89% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $10.94 per share and revenue of $5.98 billion. These totals would mark changes of -22.14% and +7%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for CMG. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-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.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.08% higher within the past month. CMG is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that CMG has a Forward P/E ratio of 113.76 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 33.34, which means CMG is trading at a premium to the group.

Investors should also note that CMG has a PEG ratio of 6.02 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Restaurants was holding an average PEG ratio of 3.9 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 74, putting it in the top 30% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

Click to get this free report Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.