We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Latest Calls: Top 10 Stocks. Since Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) ranks 7th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Jim Cramer in a new program said that if companies would “own up” to the changing circumstances, things would be “so much easier” for them as well as investors.
“There is so much information and misinformation flying around at this point in the earnings season that it’s very easy to be led astray,” Cramer said.
Cramer thinks companies are “leaving out” important information which can cause investors to make “faulty decisions.”
As an example, Cramer talked about how food and beverage companies are not talking about the impact of weight loss drugs on their financials
Cramer said that GLP-1 drugs are extremely “powerful” and they cause a decline in cravings for snacks and liquor. This, according to Cramer, directly affects beverage and snack companies. However, Cramer said these companies are intentionally not mentioning the impact of these drugs.
“I wonder how long they can maintain this fiction, it’ll be better if they just own that it’s a problem rather than just ignoring it.”
Cramer was also furious that consumer companies are not admitting that high prices are impacting their financials. He said hotels and entertainment companies raised prices in the past but now they are not willing to bring them down despite facing pricing headwinds.
Cramer also called the claims that huge AI investments are not bringing any solid results for companies “absurd.”
We watched several latest programs of Jim Cramer on CNBC and picked 10 important stocks he’s talking about. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 60
Jim Cramer reiterated his bullish view on CMG in a latest program, saying:
“This stock sells at 50 times earnings which is high but I’ve been backing Chipotle since it was down 85% (because of the E. coli outbreak).”
Chipotle is one of the stocks Barclays analyst Venu Krishna believes could offset the tech concentration risks.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) has been steadily increasing its footprint over the past several years. Back in 2007, the company had just 704 stores. This figure now stands at 3437. One of the biggest signs of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc’s (NYSE:CMG) strengths is its rising margins, even when the restaurant industry is reeling from high labor costs and squeezing margins. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc’s (NYSE:CMG) current net margin of 12.45% is the highest it has been in the past decade.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) trades at 47X 2025 EPS estimate of $66.92 set by Wall Street analysts. This P/E is much higher than the industry of 16. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) is expected to see revenue growth of just 13-15% per year over the next 3 years, while its EPS growth is expected to come in between 3% to 20%. Analysts expect the American consumer to remain prudent in spending amid higher for longer interest rate scenarios and dwindling savings. Therefore, for investors looking for high-growth stocks, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) might not be the ideal choice.
Ensemble Capital Management stated the following regarding Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Finally, we’d like to discuss Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG), a nice long term success story in our client portfolios that we recently sold out of due to its high valuation after holding for over 4 years. This was an exit that was driven by the strong performance of the stock, increasing about 370% over the past 4 years from March 2020 to June 2024.
Chipotle has been a very successful stock as a result of the strong business performance of the company. Under Brian Niccol, its CEO since 2018, it has accelerated its growth, improved operations and efficiency, and set its sights on higher goals in bringing its casual healthy Mexican cuisine to all of North America and increasingly, the world.
We first bought the stock in client portfolios in March 2020 on the thesis that there was substantial growth runway and margin leverage in the business as it scaled. The initial reaction of the COVID pandemic shutdowns on the stock was severe, with a nearly 50% drawdown, which provided the opportunity to start buying at prices that we believed offered good future returns. As it turned out, underlying acceleration in demand for Chipotle and its pricing power proved the strengths of its offering and business model shortly after…” (Click here to read the full text)
Overall, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) ranks 7th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer’s Latest Calls: Top 10 Stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CMG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.