Chipotle Wins by Getting Back to Restaurant Basics

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) did it again. For the seventh consecutive quarter, the burrito chain posted accelerating comparable sales growth. This time same-store sales jumped 11%, a testament to how far the company has come since the dark days of the E. coli crisis.

The strong performance, which included a 77% jump in adjusted earnings per share to $3.82, crushed estimates, but it still wasn't enough to please the market. Chipotle stock had nearly doubled this year coming into the third-quarter report, and investors seemed to believe Chipotle still needed to grow into its new valuation. The stock finished down 5.2% on the results.

What's notable about the stock's comeback under new CEO Brian Niccol is that much of the company's latest initiatives are standard fare in the fast-food industry. Having put concerns about food safety behind it, the company is bringing back customers with a combination of the same tasty food it had before and by embracing traditional fast-food industry tactics. Let's take a look at a few of these drivers.

Source Fool.com