After bucking industry trends, fast-casual chains like Chipotle and Cava are finally feeling the consumer slowdown.

By comparison, investors valued Chipotle at about $4 million per restaurant when the same amount of time had passed since its January 2006 IPO (the same year Cava's original three founders decided ...

How Does Zacks Consensus Estimate Compare for CAVA & CMG? The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CAVA’s 2025 sales and EPS implies year-over-year increases of 23.9% and 38.1%, respectively.

Restaurants are starting to see a drop in traffic and pressure from higher commodity prices and labor costs. So, it's no ...

By comparison, in Cava's fiscal Q2, which ended July 14, it produced revenue of $231.4 million and $19.7 million in net income, equating to growth of 35.2% and 203.1% year over year, respectively.

Chipotle's success suggests there's more room for Cava But the comparison to Chipotle is what's really interesting here. Remember, Chipotle has 3,500 locations versus just 320 or so for Cava.

If Cava can grow the way Chipotle has grown, well, there's a huge, long-term investment opportunity here. That brings up the same-store sales comparison that has Wall Street upset with Chipotle.

Nonetheless, in many respects, Chipotle continues to outperform Cava. Chipotle did not publish a restaurant-level profit, but its Q2 net income was $342 million, about 14% of revenue.

Cava plans to expand its store presence from less than 400 locations today to 1,000 in 2032. Bullish investors would love for the up-and-coming fast-casual concept to become as big as Chipotle.

The Chipotle comparison is probably a good one here, with a reasonable target for Cava's same-store growth being something similar to what its larger peer puts up.

Foodservice automation platform Hyphen has closed a Series B funding round, raising $25m with participation from the CAVA ...