Chipotle Bull Helps Erase Year's Woes With Green Light to Buy

A customer eats a salad bowl at a Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. restaurant.

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
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Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. shares have fully recovered from a downward spiral that started last summer and bottomed out in February, and Wall Street analysts are taking note.

The average price target among analysts tracked by Bloomberg has risen 46 percent since mid-April, struggling to keep pace with the stock itself, which is trading at its highest since March 2016 after Morgan Stanley analyst John Glass earlier upgradedBloomberg Terminal the popular Mexican restaurant chain to overweight from equal-weight. Glass is now ahead of the curve, raising his price target to a Street-high $600 from $413. It was the latest in a string of nine upgrades to neutral or buy ratings since Chipotle hired Brian Niccol away from Taco Bell as its new chief executive officer in February.