Chipotle Shares Drop 8% After Hours On Falling Traffic And Flat Sales Guidance

• Revenue for the three months came in at $3 billion, marking a growth of 4.9%, and  beating a consensus estimate of $2.96 billion.
• Comparable restaurant sales declined 2.5% in the quarter.
• In fiscal year 2026, the company expects comparable restaurant sales to be about flat though it expects to open 350-370 restaurants.

Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) tumbled 8% after hours on Tuesday on the heels of the company forecasting flat year-over-year growth in same-store sales for the current fiscal year.

However, both the company’s fourth-quarter earnings and revenue numbers beat Wall Street expectations.

Q4 Earnings

The burrito chain company reported earnings per share of $0.25, beating an analyst estimate of $0.24, according to data from Fiscal AI. Revenue for the three months came in at $3 billion, marking a growth of 4.9%, and  beating a consensus estimate of $2.96 billion after it opened 132 company-owned restaurants and seven restaurants run by international licensees.

Comparable restaurant sales, however, declined 2.5% in the quarter, marking the straight fourth quarter of drop. For the full year 2025, same store sales fell 1.7%.

In fiscal year 2026, the company expects comparable restaurant sales to be about flat though it expects to open 350-370 restaurants including 10 to 15 international partner-operated restaurants. In 2025, Chipotle opened 334 company-owned restaurants, and 11 international partner-operated restaurants, taking the total number of restaurants to over 4000.

The company also repurchased $741.6 million of stock at an average price per share of $34.14 during the fourth quarter. Chipotle ended the year with $1.7 billion remaining available under share repurchase authorizations from its board.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around CMG stock rose from ‘neutral’ to ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume rose from ‘high’ to ‘extremely high’ levels.

A Stocktwits user opined that the shares might open flat on Wednesday.

Another noted that the stock has wiped out the gains made over the past one month after-hours.

A more positive user, however, highlighted that the company still beat Wall Street expectations.

CMG stock has dropped 33% over the past 12 months.

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