What's Behind Chipotle Mexican Grill's Share Price Jump?

Photo courtesy of Chipotle

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG shares are up nearly 4% so far this week, trading north of $1,000 per share.

This comes just two months after the stock fell below $500.

On Monday, Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan maintained an Outperform on Chipotle and raised the price target from $870 to $1,200.

Wedbush revised its estimates for second-quarter same-store sales from a 20% decline to a 9% decline. 

Chipotle reported substantial growth in its digital order volume during the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, with same-store online sales increasing by 81%.

What's Next For Chipotle 

In Wedbush's view, Chipotle will return to pre-coronavirus same-store sales growth by 2021. 

Chipotle has focused heavily on digital sales in the past. Ninety-seven percent of Chipotle stores are accessible through third-party apps such as Uber's UBER Uber Eats and Grubhub GRUB.

Chipotle also has a track record of innovative marketing campaigns. Most recently, Chipotle has jumped on TikTok.

Chipotle launched a marketing campaign to select one winner to receive free food for an entire year using TikTok and YouTube star David Dobrik. The trending hashtag #Chipotlesponsorme was used in more than 2.7 million videos.

CMG Price Action 

Chipotle shares were trading slightly higher at $1,050.01 at the time of publication Thursday.