Chipotle Q3 Sales Miss, Shares Plunge on Weak Traffic

Chipotle reported Q3 2025 net sales of roughly $3.0 billion and adjusted EPS of $0.29, beating estimates by $0.01; comparable-restaurant sales rose 0.3% as transactions fell about 0.8%. Management warned of persistent macro pressures and said younger customers (age 25–35) are pulling back due to unemployment, student‑loan repayments and slow wage growth, and cut full‑year same‑store‑sales guidance to a low‑single‑digit decline. Executives signaled they will absorb significant food‑cost inflation — notably higher beef prices and tariffs — rather than fully passing it to consumers, a move analysts say will pressure margins into 2026. The stock plunged after the report (roughly 15% intraday to as much as ~22% after‑hours) and is down sharply from its December peak, and Wall Street firms including Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Bernstein trimmed price targets and outlooks. Chipotle said it continues to grow units (84 company‑owned openings in Q3, including Chipotlanes) and pursue menu innovation as partial offsets.