Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) is in rally mode this morning, up 5.2% at $1,658, following the firm's second-quarter earnings report. Chipotle's profits of $7.46 per share on $1.89 billion in revenue handily topped expectations. CMG also lifted its comparable sales growth forecast, which also topped estimates, as customers begin to return to restaurants.

Analysts are paying attention to CMG's blowout earnings report. Already, 14 members of the brokerage bunch have lifted their price targets on Chipotle stock, including RBC Capital Markets. The analyst lifted its price estimate to $1,825 from $1,800, adding that it sees margin expansion for Chipotle via possible price increases, seeing as few balked at the restaurants recent raise in menu prices. 

Chipotle stock jumped to a fresh record high right out of the gate, toppling the $1,622 level, which sits near CMG's recent record highs, hit earlier in the month. Though the shares suffered a sharp pullback from the area, Chipotle's stock dip was mostly contained by the 20-day moving average. 

Considering CMG's impressive price action, more analyst upgrades could be on the horizon. Of the 23 covering the security, six still say "hold." Plus, The 12-month consensus price target of $1,849.68 is a slim 8.4% premium to current levels. 

Options traders are also swarming the stock. So far, 17,000 calls and 7,988 puts have crossed the tape -- 10 times the intraday average. The most popular is the 7/23 1,750-strike call, followed by the 1,800-strike call in the same series, with positions being opened at both. 

The shares of blue-chip payments name American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) are down 1.8% at $169.49 at last check. This negative price action comes just ahead of the company's second-quarter earnings report, which is due out before the open tomorrow, July 23.

AXP's options pits are somewhat muted ahead of the event, with volume running just over the intraday average. Options traders have been picking up long calls at a quicker-than-usual pace, though. In fact, the security sports a 50-day call/put volume ratio of 1.67 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which stands higher than 79% of readings from the past year. 

Echoing this, American Express stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.83 stands higher than only 6% of readings during the past 12 months. This suggests short-term options traders have rarely been more call biased. 

Options traders are pricing in a 3.8% post-earnings swing for AXP this time around, which is slightly larger than the 2.4% move the stock averaged after its last eight reports, regardless of direction. The equity has had a history of mostly negative next-day returns, which could be contributing to today's pullback, save for two back-to-back post-earnings pops in 2020.

The brokerage bunch, meanwhile, is split, with eight analysts saying "strong buy," and eight saying "hold" or worse. Should this pre-earnings pullback be just a flash in the pan, there could be room for analyst upgrades. Plus, several trendlines still sit as potential support just below, including the stock's 50-day moving average, which has contained several pullbacks this year.