Chipotle's Big Earnings Beat Overshadowed By 'Unauthorized Payment' Activity

After hitting a high north of $505 per share, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG fell after-hours Tuesday on news the company recently detected a hack that potentially jeopardized card information between mid-March and mid-April.

“We recently detected unauthorized activity on the network that supports payment processing for purchases made in our restaurants,” a spokesperson said. “We immediately began an investigation with the help of leading cybersecurity firms, law enforcement and our payment processor. We believe actions we have taken have stopped the unauthorized activity, and we have implemented additional security enhancements.”

The representative said it had not yet notified consumers of the security issue as it was continuing to gather information, and it declined to address questions on its conference call.

Concurrently, Chipotle released its first-quarter earnings with the following highlights:

• Chipotle reports Q1 Adj. EPS $1.60, beating estimates by $0.33
• Sales came in at $1.07 billion, barely beating estimates by $20 million
• Q1 Comps came in at 17.8 percent
• Sees FY17 comps up in a high, single-digit range with 195 to 210 new restaurant openings

Chipotle's stock was up more than 6 percent in after-hours trading shortly after the release. The stock recently traded at $485, up about 2.8 percent as of 5:21 p.m. ET.

This webpage will be updated as the company learns more about the hack.

Taylor Cox contributed reporting.