Stephens Reiterates Overweight Rating for Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING)

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by investment analysts at Stephens in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $468.00 price objective on the restaurant operator’s stock. Stephens’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 57.04% from the company’s previous close.

WING has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays dropped their target price on Wingstop from $470.00 to $380.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the company from $458.00 to $377.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. BTIG Research raised shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Northcoast Research upgraded Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Wingstop presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.74.

Wingstop Stock Performance

NASDAQ WING opened at $298.01 on Thursday. Wingstop has a fifty-two week low of $241.78 and a fifty-two week high of $433.86. The stock has a market cap of $8.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 86.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.78. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $316.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $366.02.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $162.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $160.24 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 17.05% and a negative return on equity of 22.69%. The company’s revenue was up 38.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.69 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Wingstop will post 3.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 5.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wingstop news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 266 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.38, for a total transaction of $86,285.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 266 shares in the company, valued at approximately $86,285.08. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wingstop

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Wingstop in the fourth quarter valued at about $259,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 816,991 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $326,020,000 after buying an additional 7,204 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 758 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Wingstop by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 1,490 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $620,000 after buying an additional 224 shares during the period. Finally, Vestcor Inc raised its position in shares of Wingstop by 44.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 18,239 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,589,000 after buying an additional 5,572 shares during the period.

Wingstop Company Profile

Wingstop Inc, together with its subsidiaries, franchises and operates restaurants under the Wingstop brand. Its restaurants offer classic wings, boneless wings, tenders, and hand-sauced-and-tossed in various flavors, as well as chicken sandwiches with fries and hand-cut carrots and celery that are cooked-to-order.