Here’s Why ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy Chose Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG)

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. The investment philosophy of the strategy is to invest in leading companies that are undervalued by the market in terms of their future growth potential. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Large-cap stocks continued their strength in the quarter, driven by strong earnings growth from mega-cap companies and enthusiasm over generative AI. The ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy underperformed the Russell 1000 Growth Index by approximately 900 basis points for the year. It continued to lag behind the benchmark, trailing its 1.2% quarterly advance by about 170 basis points during the fourth quarter. The underweight exposure to mega-cap AI beneficiaries and lower-quality AI-related names contributed to the underperformance. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy highlighted stocks such as Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG). Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) owns and operates Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants. The one-month return of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) was 11.47%, and its shares lost 32.89% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 7, 2026, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.  (NYSE:CMG) stock closed at $38.87 per share, with a market capitalization of $52.12 billion.

ClearBridge Large Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:

“After a flurry of activity post Liberation Day, our portfolio actions in the quarter were more limited. We closed a position in Starbucks to concentrate our exposure in restaurants into Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG). While we still believe in the turnaround story at Starbucks under CEO Brian Niccol, improvements are taking longer than expected to accelerate the business. Both Starbucks and Chipotle are being impacted by macro headwinds in the restaurant sector due to a challenged low-income consumer; however, we believe Chipotle has faster long-term store growth potential and better unit economics, and we feel more comfortable in Chipotle’s price versus value provided to consumers.”

In another article, we covered Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) and shared the list of best restaurant stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.