Strong growth potential offsets risk

Article Excerpt

CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL INC. (New York symbols CMG $58 and CMG.B $54; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 32.6 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; WSSF Rating: Speculative) operates over 500 restaurants in 23 states. It uses fresh ingredients and traditional cooking methods to make a variety of Mexican dishes. Chipotle owns 98% of these restaurants. In January 2005, McDonald’s Corp. (see box next page) sold its Chipotle class A shares (one vote per share) to the public at $22.00 a share. In October, it handed out its class B shares (10 votes per share) to its own stockholders under a special exchange offer. Unlike a typical spin-off, only those McDonald’s stockholders that chose to participate received Chipotle stock. In the third quarter of 2006, Chipotle earned $0.36 a share, up 89.5% from $0.19 a year earlier. Revenue rose 28.3%, to $211.3 million from $164.7 million, mainly due to the opening of 30 new restaurants. On a same-store basis, sales grew 11.6%. Chipotle…