On Tuesday July 17th, 2017, shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill – which had been trading in a fairly “normal” trading manner for itself – began to suddenly drop and drop and drop beginning at around 10:30am.

It seems news had been announced and was being released nationwide that in fact more individuals had been stricken with food-borne illnesses emanating from a Chipotle Mexican establishment in Sterling, Virginia. If you’re a Chipotle Mexican Grill fan, or even an avid eat outer, perhaps even a health one, you must be aware that the company has faced these issues in the net to recent past.

It seems unfathomable that a company as large as Chipotle is, as rich as the company is in revenues and followers, who stand in long lines awaiting their food to be prepared, that this could happen again and again.

On a personal note, I can count on one or two fingers on one hand the amount of times I have become ill from a restaurant that served me food-even  raw food, such as sushi.

You would think that Sushi, being raw, and needing to be refrigerated at certain temperatures would inflict more bacteria and more food-borne illnesses than a restaurant that serves basically fresh vegetables and healthy lower-fat type meats, burritos, etc..

In this most recent Chipotle event, it seems there were about 13 customers who were sick sickened after eating there Friday and/or Saturday of this past week. Some of these individuals needed to be hospitalized as a result.  The most common things customers complained about were diarrhea, dehydration, stomach issues- including nausea, and vomiting.

In the early stages of this most recent news, it is being attributed to What’s called the Norovirus. This is a highly contagious virus which emanates usually from a worker who fails to have washed their hands after using a restroom and then touching food. The previous cases involved e.coli.

With earnings due out on July 25th, it will be interesting to see if this most recent illness outbreak will have any impact on a statement for the upcoming quarter’s earnings. The books are already closed for this quarter so the only affects it could likely have would be for the upcoming third quarter.

Company Comments

Jim Marsden, Chipotle’s executive director of food safety, had this to say.

“We are working with health authorities to understand what the cause may be and to resolve the situation as quickly as possible,” Jim Marsden, Chipotle’s executive director of food safety, said. “The reported symptoms are consistent with norovirus. Norovirus does not come from our food supply, and it is safe to eat at Chipotle.”

A Chipotle spokesman, Chris Arnold offered this out to the public,

“We are working with health authorities to understand what the cause may be and to resolve the situation as quickly as possible,”. The reported symptoms are consistent with norovirus. Norovirus does not come from our food supply, and it is safe to eat at Chipotle. We plan to reopen the restaurant today.”

Analyst Comments

Howard Penney, managing director at Hedgeye Risk Management, told this to TheStreet,

“Fire Steve Ells.The only way to get past this is to get a management team that knows how to run a restaurant.” [Chipotle] hasn’t recovered from the last [outbreak] so this is going to make it even harder to recover”.

The Price Action

(Click on image to enlarge)

The above price chart shows  Chipotle’s intraday trading action as well as the aftermarket. One can see that at about 10:30am on the chart is when the shares began to drop on increasing volume. This was right around when the news was circulating about the recent sicknesses.