management says it currently has no plans for more price increases after months of charging more for burritos and bowls to boost sales executives at chipotle mexican grill inc on tuesday signaled that the days of larger price hikes  and the jolt they gave to financials  might be behind them chipotle cmg in its fourthquarter earnings release said it expected samestore sales to increase in the high single digits in the first quarter that outlook was based on a lowdoubledigits percentage gain in samestore sales notched in january but during the mexican fastcasual restaurant chains earnings conference call chief financial officer jack hartung said trends further out were harder to predict as recession fears endure and gains from earlier price increases fade considering economic uncertainty including the possibility of a recession we expect comps to moderate as we lap menuprice increases in early q2 and the middle of q3 he said however he said later in the call the chain had no plans to raise prices at the moment and that it might be more patient doing so this year and he said the company was not going to raise prices for the sake of putting up yearoveryear growth were not going to take a price increase just to cover a lap over last year he said the main thing were going to do is were going to watch inflation and were going to hope that inflation is tame the remarks were made after chipotle reported fourthquarter results earlier in the afternoon that missed expectations dragged by tightening consumer spending the results marked only the second time in five years that the company put up earnings per share that were short of wall streets expectations the last time that happened was the same quarter in 2020 shares sank 47 after hours rising food prices have gouged consumers over the past year including some of chipotles executives in october said that some lowerincome consumers had ordered food less frequently after the chain raised prices in part to counter higher costs for employees and ingredients however they said most of their customers earned at least 75000 annually even as layoffs hit other industries and other restaurants try to raise wages and juggle higher costs chipotle last month said it would hire 15000 staff in preparation for what it called burrito season chief executive brian niccol said during tuesdays call that chipotle hadnt seen any meaningful resistance overall to price increases and he said that wealthier customers particularly those making more than 100000 stopped by more often he also talked up new technology that the company was trying out  a grill that could cook chicken and steak more quickly an automated digital make line and a robot called chippy that fries chips  that might help chipotle save money down the road the chain reported fourthquarter net income of 2237 million or 802 a share compared with 1335 million or 469 a share in the same quarter in the prior year revenue rose 11 to 218 billion compared with 196 billion in the prioryear quarter samestore sales gained 56 excluding the impact from certain legal proceedings and restructuring chipotle earned 829 a share compared with 558 a share in the prioryear quarter analysts polled by factset expected adjusted earnings per share of 891 on revenue of 223 billion they expected samestore sales growth of 69 its like being ripped into two chipotle workers overwhelmed by online orders and furious customers the results follow some massive gains for chipotle  in terms of sales profit and stores  over the pandemic which spurred greater demand for digital ordering and food delivery chipotle executives on tuesday said that delivery transactions fell during the quarter as more people returned to ordering in restaurants btig analyst peter saleh in a note last month said chipotle likely raised its prices too much potentially causing more customers to turn away from the chain however we believe the tradeoff of modestly lower transactions but significantly higher margins is something investors should readily accept he said shares of chipotle have moved 18 higher over the past 12 months by comparison the sp 500 index has fallen 7 over that period