We recently published a list of 10 Stocks Everyone’s Talking About as Trump Softens His Tone on China. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) stands against other stocks everyone’s talking about as Trump softens his tone on China.
Investors are desperately looking for signs of a market bottom after going through massive volatility and losses. 3Fourteen Research’s Warren Pies said in a latest program on CNBC that we are getting “close” to a market bottom based on his technical analysis. The analyst talked about key indicators he’s looking for:
“I do think that the White House is trying to deescalate the situation. One of the markers we’ve seen is that Peter Navarro hasn’t been on TV since April 13th, and that’s corresponding with this equity rally. Setting that aside, though, I think that a bottom, a confirmed bottom, has two components. You need to see washed out sentiment and positioning. We measured that in a number of ways: we measured it in inverse ETFs for retail, we measured it for vault targeting for institutions, and CTAs for trend followers. Across all those metrics, sentiment is depressed. That’s phase one of a bottom. Then, you look for technical confirmation. Philosophically, we’re always going to be late because of that ordering.”
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In.
For this article, we picked 10 stocks investors are currently focusing on. With each stock, we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A chef plating up a wide variety of dishes for a restaurant chain.
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG)
Number of Hedge Funds Investors: 69
Investopedia’s Caleb Silver said in a latest program on Schwab Network that Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) is expected to be impacted by a decline in consumer spending and tariffs.
“This is right in the middle of everything. This is right in the middle of tariffs. This is right in the middle of consumer spending and sentiment, right in the middle of discretionary spending for consumers. Because when you think about it, a burrito bowl or a burrito — they’re 17, 18 bucks. There’s a lot cheaper options, and I think consumers are going to be looking for those. Plus the pressure from tariffs — we got avocado tariffs probably coming tomorrow. Those are going to hit them big time. And they’re still coming out of that sort of skimpy portion scandal last summer that cost them some reputational damage.”
However, Reuters reported that avocados are among the Mexican items that the U.S. will continue to be able to import tariff-free.
ClearBridge Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We also initiated a position in fast casual restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG). The recent pullback in shares related to a moderation in industry-wide restaurant sales and CEO Brian Niccol’s August departure created an attractive entry point into a company with industry-leading unit economics in a still underpenetrated market. Chipotle plans to double its store footprint over time while executing initiatives to increase volume growth through technology enhancements, reduced mobile order friction and higher production during peak hours. Better throughput, technological integration and improved mix should help to drive continued margin expansion. Chipotle further diversifies the portfolio, adding to consumer discretionary where we have historically had less exposure.”
Overall, CMG ranks 8th on our list of stocks everyone’s talking about as Trump softens his tone on China. While we acknowledge the potential of CMG, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CMG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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