Chipotle Profit Rises 30%

Bloomberg News reports that Chipotle, the biggest gainer among restaurants in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index last year, said fourth-quarter profit rose 30 percent as more customers visited its stores.

“It’s really marketing and advertising that’s driving traffic for them,” Peter Saleh, a New York-based analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, said in an interview. “This is really impressive in light of what we’ve heard from other retailers, including Starbucks, who said December was a weak month.”