Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants. It sells food and beverages, such as burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, tacos, and salads, as well as kids's meals, chips, and sides. It offers Mexican-inspired meals using responsibly sourced meats, such as chicken, beef, and pork branded as Responsibly Raised. The company also provides digital …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
ROIC Sustainably Above PeersROIC at 94.4th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
Strong Interest Coverage & Conservative LeverageDebt serviceability is strong (score 0.85), with robust interest coverage.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. ranks #5 of 57
scored companies in Restaurants by moat score — the top 9%.
The widest moat in the group is Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM)
at 83/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near CMG in Restaurants
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 87
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 82
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 85
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 79
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 73
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
What is Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.'s moat score?
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) scores 78 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #5 of 57 scored companies in Restaurants, the top 9%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 56 companies in Restaurants. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (87/100) and its weakest is Pricing Power (67/100).
How does Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. compare with other Restaurants companies?
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. ranks #5 of 57 scored companies in Restaurants by moat score. The widest moat in Restaurants is Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are McDonald's Corporation (MCD) at 79 just above it and Rave Restaurant Group, Inc. (RAVE) at 76 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 56 companies in Restaurants. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and CMG scores: Pricing Power (67), Cost Advantage (87), Customer Stickiness (82), Capital Efficiency (85), Resilience (79), Scale & Market Position (73). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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