Chipotle Mexican Grill on Wednesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analysts\u2019 expectations as it saw higher traffic at its restaurants, bucking an industry slowdown.<\/p>\n
Shares of the company rose after the closing bell. As of Wednesday\u2019s close, Chipotle\u2019s stock had slid 17% this month, hurt by investor concerns about the health of the restaurant industry. In late June, the company executed a 50-for-1 stock split.<\/p>\n
From April:<\/strong> Chipotle reports big profit as diners shake off price increases<\/p>\n The burrito chain reported second-quarter net income of $455.7 million, or 33 cents per share, up from $341.8 million, or 25 cents per share, a year earlier. Chipotle\u2019s profits rose from the year-ago period due to price hikes that helped offset higher avocado prices and greater usage of oil to fry tortilla chips this quarter.<\/p>\n Excluding items, Chipotle earned 34 cents per share.<\/p>\n Net sales climbed 18.2% to $2.97 billion.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s same-store sales rose 11.1% in the quarter, topping StreetAccount estimates of 9.2%. <\/p>\n Demand for its food peaked in April, CEO Brian Niccol said on CNBC\u2019s \u201cClosing Bell: Overtime\u201d on Wednesday. Same-store sales settled around 6% higher in June. Executives said that July has been more difficult to understand, given the Fourth of July holiday, weather disruptions in Texas and a recent tech outage.<\/p>\n Traffic to its restaurants increased 8.7%, despite backlash on social media fueled by customers who said their burrito bowls are smaller. The company has denied reducing its portion sizes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have focused in on those with outlier portion scores based on consumer surveys, and we are re-emphasizing training and coaching around ensuring we are consistently making bowls and burritos correctly,\u201d Niccol told analysts on the company\u2019s conference call. \u201cWe have also leaned in and re-emphasized generous portions across all of our restaurants, as it is a core brand equity of Chipotle.\u201d<\/p>\n Restaurant transactions grew across every income level, Niccol said. Other consumer companies, from PepsiCo to McDonald\u2019s, have said in recent months that low-income customers are pulling back more, pressuring their sales. Chipotle, like many fast-casual chains, benefits from a customer base that tends to make higher incomes.<\/p>\n The chain brought back its chicken al pastor in March as a limited-time menu item. More customers have also been ordering its barbacoa, which underwent a name change earlier this year that added \u201cbraised beef\u201d to improve customer awareness of the option.<\/p>\n Chipotle opened 52 new company-owned locations and one new international licensed restaurant during the quarter.<\/p>\n The company reiterated its full-year outlook that same-store sales will grow by a mid- to high-single digit percentage. Chipotle also anticipates that it will open between 285 to 315 new restaurants this year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chipotle Mexican Grill on Wednesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analysts\u2019 expectations as it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}