Key Highlights

● Second-quarter revenue rose 9.3% to $3.35 billion.

● Comparable restaurant sales rose 2.2%, with transactions up 1.0%.

● Restaurant-level operating margin fell to 25.2% from 27.4% a year earlier.

● Chipotle repurchased $630.7 million of stock in the quarter.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) operates fast-casual restaurants serving burritos, bowls and tacos. At June 30, 2026 it owned 4,186 restaurants, including 4,074 in the United States and 112 international, plus 15 international partner-operated sites. Its common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CMG.

Second-quarter 2026 results

Chipotle reported second-quarter results on July 29, 2026. Revenue was $3.35 billion, up 9.3%. Comparable restaurant sales rose 2.2%, made up of a 1.2% rise in average check and 1.0% growth in transactions. Digital sales were 38.3% of food and beverage revenue, versus 35.5% a year earlier.

Restaurant-level operating margin was 25.2%, down from 27.4%. Net income was $403.5 million versus $436.1 million, and diluted earnings were $0.32 per share, flat on the prior year. Adjusted diluted earnings were $0.33 per share, also flat. In short, sales growth was driven chiefly by new restaurants rather than existing-store momentum, and margin compression absorbed the gain.

Within the S&P 500 restaurant group, Chipotle stands out for not franchising in the United States and for relying on company-owned units, which gives management direct control of pricing and labor but also direct exposure to cost inflation.

The 1.0% transactions growth is notable because it shows traffic remained positive, while the 1.2% rise in average check implies modest pricing. Net income fell by about 7.5% year over year even as revenue grew.

Openings and guidance

The company opened 100 company-owned restaurants in the quarter, 80 of them with a Chipotlane drive-through pick-up lane, and one international partner-operated site. For 2026 it expects low-single-digit comparable sales growth, 350 to 370 openings including 10 to 15 partner-operated, about 80% of new company-owned restaurants with a Chipotlane, and an underlying effective tax rate of 24% to 26%.

Guidance is management's expectation, not a reported result.

The openings plan implies roughly 350 to 370 new sites in 2026 against a base of 4,186 owned restaurants, or unit growth of around 8% to 9% at the midpoint.

Cash and buybacks

Chipotle held $228.2 million of cash and equivalents at June 30, 2026, plus $449.7 million of current and $97.1 million of long-term investments. It repurchased $630.7 million of stock in the quarter at an average of $32.55 per share, and $1.7 billion remained under authorization, including $1.3 billion approved on June 11, 2026.

Because buybacks of $630.7 million in one quarter exceeded the $403.5 million of net income, the program was funded partly from accumulated cash and investments. Cash and investments totaled about $775 million at the quarter end.

Cost Inflation and Margin Sensitivity

Material risks include food, packaging and labor cost inflation, which feed directly into restaurant-level margin, consumer spending pressure, food-safety incidents and the pace of new-unit productivity. Margin contraction of 2.2 percentage points in a single year shows how sensitive profitability can be.