Time to Buy Chipotle Before Its Massive Stock Split?

A lot of people seem to care about stock splits, so much so that we even have a dedicated calendar for them at The Motley Fool. A huge split is coming up for Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG), which is doing a 50-to-1 exchange, estimated to occur on June 26. Investors have gotten excited and sent shares of Chipotle close to all-time highs at around $3,000 a share.

I am here to tell you that stock splits don't matter. A stock is worth the future cash it will distribute back to shareholders, discounted back to today. For Chipotle, it is irrelevant whether it has one share that trades at a price of $80 billion (its current market capitalization) or 80 billion shares trading for $1. An investor will make money if the company generates more in earnings.

Forgetting the irrelevant stock split, how does Chipotle stack up when doing fundamental analysis? Should you buy the stock at current prices? Let's take a closer look and find out.

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Source Fool.com