Chipotle reported its first quarterly loss ever and a massive decline in sales on Tuesday.
Same-store sales — at the fast-food chain's locations open for at least one year — plunged for a second straight quarter following disease outbreaks that were first linked to its food last year.
Chipotle reported a smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss per share of -$0.88. Revenues totaled $834.5 million.
The company has given away a lot of free food to lure customers back, and in turn, this hurt sales a bit.
Comparable-store sales — at locations open for at least one year — fell 29.7%.
Chipotle spent 35.3% of its revenues on food testing and costs incurred from waste. That's up more than 1% compared to Q1 last year.
Analysts had forecast that Chipotle would report a loss of $1.05 per share, and revenues of $863.3 million, according to Bloomberg. Same-store sales were estimated to fall 28.4%.
This weakness is the result of cases of E. coli in 14 states were linked to Chipotle's burritos and bowls. There's also a federal criminal investigation related to a norovirus outbreak in California.
In after-hours trading, Chipotle's shares fell by as much as 5%.
