Chipotle inventory (CMG) fell greater than 7% Tuesday after the corporate introduced the departure of its CEO, Brian Niccol, who will take the identical function at Starbucks (SBUX) beginning subsequent month.
Niccol has been the CEO of Chipotle since 2018. Scott Boatwright, its COO, will function the corporate’s interim CEO.
Niccol has been integral to Chipotle’s rebound over the previous a number of years as the corporate recovered from an E. coli disaster that started in 2015 and weighed on shares for years.
Within the 12 months earlier than Niccol joined the corporate, Chipotle’s annual revenues had been round $4.5 billion; by 2023, income had greater than doubled, totaling $9.9 billion for the 12 months. Previously 5 years, the inventory has rallied greater than 240% towards an 85% acquire for the S&P 500.
Amid the manager shake-up, Chipotle CFO Jack Hartung, who had introduced plans to retire in 2025, has agreed to stay with Chiptole “indefinitely” as a president of technique, finance, and provide chain.
“Chipotle is in an excellent place,” Wedbush analyst Nick Setyan instructed Yahoo Finance. “They’re in superb fingers … Each gents right here which are taking up, I credit score each of them with the turnaround as a lot as I credit score Brian Niccol. So I believe they’re in superb fingers.”
He added, “They’re on autopilot, frankly. And never a lot has to vary.”
Bernstein senior analysis analyst Danilo Gargiulo agreed Chipotle is nicely positioned for the change.
“The model has advanced itself from being only a CEO-driven and CEO-led,” Gargiulo mentioned. “And I believe over time it has confirmed itself that it is bigger than its personal administration … Proper now we’re speaking about doubtlessly a cookie cutter method that Chipotle will must be deploying into extra areas and increase the variety of items.”
Josh Schafer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Observe him on X @_joshschafer.
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