Chipotle Mexican Grill Earnings Preview

On Wednesday, April 21, Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG will release its latest earnings report. Decipher the announcement with Benzinga's help.

Net Income, Earnings, And Earnings Per Share

Earnings and especially earnings per share (EPS) are useful measures of a company's profitability. Total earnings, which is also referred to as net income, equals total revenue minus total expenses. EPS equals to net income divided by the number of shares outstanding.

Earnings And Revenue

Sell-side analysts expect Chipotle Mexican Grill's EPS to be near $4.86 on sales of $1.74 billion. Chipotle Mexican Grill EPS in the same period a year ago totaled $3.08. Sales were $1.41 billion.

Why Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises Are Important

Analysts who cover this company will publish forward-looking estimates of its revenue and EPS each quarter. Averaging together every EPS and revenue prediction that each analyst makes about a company in a quarter yields the "consensus estimates." A company posting earnings or revenue above or below the consensus estimate is known as an "earnings surprise" and may move the stock by a considerable margin.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 57.79% increase in the company's EPS figure. Revenue would be have grown 23.32% from the same quarter last year. In comparison to analyst estimates in the past, here is how the company's reported EPS stacks up:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill are up 75.26%.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Chipotle Mexican Grill is scheduled to hold the call at 16:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.