CNBC's Jim Cramer said he sees success ahead for fast-food chain Chipotle, even though its stock got clobbered and dropped nearly 10% on Thursday.
To Cramer, who has experience as a restaurant owner, some of the most important factors for success are traffic and throughput. For the past couple of years, Cramer said, restaurants have been trying to raise their prices without driving customers away, but he said Chipotle doesn't seem to have that problem.
"Chipotle's different, though," he said. "They could raise prices to more than offset their higher costs, and it didn't hurt traffic one bit; that's how much people love the food."
He pointed to one aspect of the company's Wednesday conference call which mentioned a new dual grill that can cook meat faster — chicken in four minutes instead of 12 and steak in one minute instead of four. The new grill can be only found in 10 high-volume Chipotle locations, Cramer said. But he predicts the chain's throughput will speed up as the grill debuts in more locations.
"We all want foresight not hindsight," Cramer said. "Yet nobody ever wants to hear that they'll look back on this moment and kick themselves for missing out on a terrific buying opportunity."
Cramer grouped aerospace company Honeywell in with Chipotle as another stock that plunged on Thursday that he thinks will perform well in the future. He also mentioned his experience with the Invisalign maker Align, which saw its stock fall from north of $300 to the $170 range in just three months a year ago. But after Align reported Wednesday night, it rallied more than 13%, finishing Thursday at $385.
"Some companies and the people who run them are simply bankable. And that's true for Chipotle, and it's true for Honeywell, just as it was true for Align when the stock rolled over last year," Cramer said. "Hindsight says you should've bought Align into weakness, foresight says go buy Honeywell and Chipotle right now, because they're in the same situation."
Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer's every move in the market.
Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Honeywell
Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC
Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram
Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com