{"id":23407,"date":"2023-04-25T22:58:32","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T22:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/chipotle-mexican-grill-beats\/"},"modified":"2023-04-25T23:02:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T23:02:26","slug":"chipotle-mexican-grill-earnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/chipotle-mexican-grill-earnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Chipotle Mexican Grill earnings beat on price hikes, new stores"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hilary Russ and Granth Vanaik<\/p>\n

(Reuters) -Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc topped Wall Street expectations for first-quarter profits and sales on Tuesday, helped by higher menu prices, 41 new restaurant openings and some recovery among lower-income customers.<\/p>\n

The company said it expects second quarter and full year comparable sales growth in the mid-to-high single digits. Analysts were expecting a growth of 5.7% and 5.9%, respectively. <\/p>\n

Shares of the company rose nearly 8% in extended trading.<\/p>\n

Chipotle’s base of higher-income customers were eating its bowls and burritos more often, Chief Executive Brian Niccol said during an earnings call, adding that lower-income customers were also eating at Chipotle more often after a pullback, though their visits are not back to where they were a year ago.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen nice improvements across all of our income cohorts,” he said. People with household incomes of at least $100,000 make up more of Chipotle’s customer base than at some other fast-food and fast-casual brands.<\/p>\n

Even with inflation squeezing household budgets, restaurant chains are expected to post higher sales growth in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

McDonald’s Corp reported a 12.6% rise in first quarter global comparable sales as American consumers kept dining out. <\/p>\n

Comparable sales at California-based Chipotle jumped about 11% in the first quarter, while analysts on average expected an 8.6% rise, according to Refinitiv data. <\/p>\n

Chipotle’s menu prices were about 10% higher in the first quarter versus last year, but they will be only about 5% higher in the second quarter as previous price hikes roll off, Chief Restaurant Officer Scott Boatwright said in an interview.<\/p>\n

“You’re paying more\u2026 but for still relatively good value on the plate,” said Kevin McCarthy, a portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, whose accounts hold some Chipotle shares. <\/p>\n

Chipotle has no plans to increase prices the rest of the year, but that could change if labor or commodity costs surge, according to Boatwright.<\/p>\n

Lower avocado costs helped margins, but they may not persist. Inflation in the second half is “really a wild card,” Chief Financial Officer Jack Hartung said on the earnings call.<\/p>\n

Chipotle’s restaurants were more profitable, with store-level operating margins rising to 25.6% from 20.7% a year ago, due in part to lower avocado costs and lower delivery expenses as delivery volumes fell.<\/p>\n

Net income was $291.6 million, or $10.50 per diluted share, beating analysts expectations of $248.4 million and $8.92. Profits per share were 84% higher than last year on an adjusted basis.<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru and Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Anna Driver and David Gregorio)<\/p>\n

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By Hilary Russ and Granth Vanaik (Reuters) -Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc topped Wall Street expectations for first-quarter profits and sales on Tuesday, helped by higher menu prices, 41 new restaurant openings and some recovery among lower-income customers. The company said it expects second quarter and full year comparable sales growth in the mid-to-high single digits. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-23407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3O0VI-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23407"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23587,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23407\/revisions\/23587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}