: Chipotle sales bounce back from pandemic decline, but the stock is falling

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. returned to sales growth despite the COVID-19 pandemic over the summer, the company reported on Wednesday, but shares still declined after a sustained run higher. Read More...

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. reported third-quarter earnings Wednesday afternoon.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. returned to sales growth despite the COVID-19 pandemic over the summer, the company reported on Wednesday, but shares still declined after a sustained run higher.

Chipotle CMG, +1.34% reported third-quarter net income of $80.2 million, or $2.82 a share, down from $3.47 a share last year due to costs related to restructuring, restaurant closures and legal proceedings, the company said. After adjusting for those costs, the company reported earnings of $3.76 a share, down from $3.82 a share a year ago.

Revenue jumped back to growth, however. Sales totaled $1.6 billion, up more than 14% from $1.4 billion a year ago, thanks to a same-store-sales gain of 8.3%. Analysts on average expected same-store sales to gain 7.3%, according to FactSet, and projected adjusted earnings of $3.47 a share on sales of $1.59 billion.

Chipotle has leveraged online ordering and delivery to recover quickly from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mexican-food chain’s same-store sales declined in the second quarter but has bounced back in part thanks to larger orders and the return of carne asada.

Online sales continue to be a huge driver of purchases in the third quarter, with online sales more than tripling and accounting for nearly half of the orders Chipotle received.

“Digital sales grew 202.5% year over year to $776.4 million and represented 48.8% of sales,” the company disclosed in Wednesday’s release. “About half of the digital sales were via delivery, benefiting from our expanded partnerships, with the remainder coming from order-ahead transactions.”

Chipotle did not provide a forecast for the current quarter due to “ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future impact of COVID-19 on the broader US economy and any specific impact to our company,” according to the release.

Shares dropped about 5% in after-hours trading immediately following the release of the results, after closing with a 1% gain at $1,361.58 in the regular trading session. The stock is up more than 60% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index SPX has increased 6.6%.