5 Best Fast Food Stocks to Buy Now

4. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 39    

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) owns and operates Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants. It is one of the top fast food stocks to invest in. On October 19, Chipotle Mexican Grill announced that it will come to Madison by next summer after a number of requests from customers. 

On October 4, Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Mullan maintained a Hold rating on Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) stock and raised the price target to $1,708 from $1,503, highlighting that company expects to meet Q4 consensus same-store sales estimate of 8.5%.

At the end of the second quarter of 2022, 39 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $2.3 billion in Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG), compared to 38 in the preceding quarter worth $2.95 billion. 

In its Q1 2022 investor letter, Ensemble Capital, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) (6.0% weight in the Fund): In a recent blog post called GREAT COMPANIES ARE FORGED DURING CRISIS we discussed why companies with economic moats, relevant products and services, and those that create stakeholder value are more resilient in the face of crisis than the average company. Less advantaged competitors, in turn, struggle, which creates opportunities for great companies to get even better.

We think Chipotle navigated the COVID environment better than any major quick-serve restaurant and has consequently gone from strength to strength. Indeed, from March 1, 2020 to March 31, 2022, Chipotle shares gained 106% versus the S&P 500 Restaurants Index’s 28% return, including dividends (…read more)