** Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG.N up 2.5% to $55.34 early Mon after Morgan Stanley upgrades to 'overweight' from 'equal-weight', pointing to an attractive entry point
** Brokerage boosts PT by $5 to $70, implying ~30% upside to stock's last close
** Morgan Stanley says as shares have faded on weak sales data and growth stock pressures, an opportunity to step in has presented itself
** Compares are "tough right now", MS says, and while Q1 and perhaps Q2 could look "not great", the drivers of product, marketing and throughput should still deliver a "decent" 2025 and beyond
** CMG will likely be a leader in deploying automation at substantial scale, which restrains costs, drives margins and throughput, and allows co to be judicious on pricing, where it already has an edge, MS says
** Last month, CMG provided a tepid annual sales forecast, flagging proposed tariffs on Mexico
** Of 36 brokerages covering CMG, recommendation breakdown is 27 "strong buy" or "buy", rest "hold"' and median PT is $68, LSEG data shows
** With moves on the session, stock off ~8% YTD vs S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary index's .SPLRCD ~4.5% decline
(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)
((lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))
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