Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) Short Interest Update

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 17,590,000 shares, a decrease of 23.7% from the February 13th total of 23,060,000 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 10,730,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CMG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Cfra raised shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $65.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $68.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.74.

Institutional Trading of Chipotle Mexican Grill

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill during the fourth quarter worth $1,093,345,000. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd bought a new position in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill during the 4th quarter worth approximately $692,701,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 4,138,574.1% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 8,318,735 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $501,620,000 after buying an additional 8,318,534 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 29.5% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 30,100,520 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,815,061,000 after acquiring an additional 6,853,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in the 4th quarter worth about $315,220,000. 91.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Price Performance

CMG traded up $0.79 on Wednesday, hitting $48.58. The company had a trading volume of 1,169,166 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,111,249. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $55.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.84. The stock has a market cap of $65.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.27. Chipotle Mexican Grill has a 1-year low of $47.54 and a 1-year high of $69.26.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.01. Chipotle Mexican Grill had a return on equity of 42.92% and a net margin of 13.56%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Chipotle Mexican Grill will post 1.29 EPS for the current year.

About Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants. It sells food and beverages through offering burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, tacos, and salads. The company also provides delivery and related services its app and website. It has operations in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.