If you invested $1000 in Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) 5 years ago, here's how much it's worth today

They say, “If it looks like a restaurant, cooks food like a restaurant, and serves food like a restaurant, then it’s probably a restaurant.”. However, this might not be how investors see Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG). Chipotle’s stock is currently trading at a P/E ratio of around 54, while many of the top-known fast-food chains’ stocks are trading at less than half of that rate. For instance, both Yum Brands (NYSE:YUM) and McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) have a P/E ratio of 25.

Chipotle's revenue growth

From 2019 to 2023, Chipotle’s revenue has averaged an annual growth of 15.28% and is expected to hit approximately the same growth rate this year. Chipotle just released their Q3 2024 report on October 29. Chipotle revealed a 13.0% increase in total revenue compared to the same quarter of the previous year, reaching $2.8 billion. Comparable restaurant sales saw a 6.0% growth. The operating margin improved to 16.9% from 16.0% in the same quarter of the previous year, while the restaurant-level operating margin slightly declined to 25.5% from 26.3%. Diluted earnings per share rose by 21.7% to $0.28. Additionally, Chipotle announced that they opened 86 new company-operated restaurants, with 73 featuring a Chipotlane (a window for picking up mobile orders exclusively) and one international licensed restaurant.

Recent changes and developments

In the past 3 months, the company has seen multiple significant changes. The former CEO Brian Niccol left Chipotle in August to become the CEO of Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX). Last week, Chipotle announced that their board appointed Scott Boatwright as CEO after he was the interim CEO since Niccol left back in August. Prior to that, Boatwright was serving as the COO of Chipotle since 2017. In 2022, Chipotle introduced Cultivate Next, a $50 million venture fund to pursue investments in supply chain, agriculture, restaurant innovation, and automation. Earlier this year, Chipotle announced that it has doubled the fund’s size to $100 million. 

Chipotle's AI and robotics investments

In September, Chipotle announced the Autocado and the Augmented Makeline. Both are robotic technologies that Chipotle said it is testing in two of its locations to automate tasks. The Autocado is an automated avocado processing cobot developed in partnership with VEBU, a company that Chipotle has invested in through the Cultivate Next fund. The Augmented Makeline is created in collaboration with Hyphen, another of Cultivate Next’s investments. It uses automation technology to build bowls and salads. Last month, Chipotle announced it has made a minority investment in Lumchain, an AI supply chain platform that monitors operations inside food production plants.

If you invested in Chipotle 5 years ago

Using Stoculator's stock calculator, a $1,000 invested in Chipotle 5 years ago would be worth $3,831.74 (as of November 19, 2024). That's an annual return rate of 30.84% and a total return rate of 283.17%.

A $1,000 invested in Chipotle 10 years ago would be worth $4.494.09 (as of November 19, 2024). That's an annual return rate of 16.23% with a total return of 349.41%.

You can use Stoculator's calculator to check the numbers for different periods and investment amounts.