Chipotle up following earnings beat

Chipotle reported earnings that topped street estimates. posting $1.74 billion in revenue and an adjusted EPS of $5.36 versus $1.75 billion in expected revenue and an expected adjusted EPS of $4.91. Yahoo Finance’s Emily McCormick breaks down the key metrics.

Video transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: But right now, we've got Chipotle earnings. We want to get to Emily McCormick. She's going to bring us up to speed. What have they got?

EMILY MCCORMICK: Well, Adam, Chipotle matching expectations on same store sales growth, but beating earnings estimates for the first quarter. Now we saw those same store sales, a closely watched metric for restaurants, rising 17.2%. And that was in line with what Wall Street had been targeting, and that we should note that same store sales figure had a pretty easy comparison over last year's first quarter, since that's when the pandemic first really hit in the US.

But Chipotle pointed to a few specific drivers in its earnings release this afternoon, saying, quote, "We believe several new menu items, effective marketing, and ongoing strength in digital sales, as well as a tailwind from government stimulus payments to consumers, contributed to first quarter revenue growth," end quote.

And digital sales, we should highlight, were very strong in the quarter. Those were up 134% over last year to account for half of all sales in the first three months of the year. Now, in terms of guidance, the company said for the second quarter, it expects comparable restaurant sales to be in the range of high 20s to 30% growth. Now it's not providing full year guidance for the entirety of 2021, given the ongoing uncertainty due to the pandemic.

And then, finally, I do want to put a spotlight on those bottom line results for the first quarter. Adjusted earnings a major beat and came in at $5.36 per share, versus the $4.91 that had been expected. We are seeing shares of Chipotle up just slightly in late trading, Adam and Seana.