Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) Earns “Overweight” Rating from Stephens

Stephens reissued their overweight rating on shares of Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $425.00 target price on the restaurant operator’s stock.

WING has been the topic of several other research reports. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Wingstop from $310.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Wingstop from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $274.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Wingstop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Wingstop from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $379.52.

Wingstop Price Performance

Shares of Wingstop stock opened at $309.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.65 billion, a PE ratio of 51.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.87. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $328.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $291.73. Wingstop has a 52-week low of $204.00 and a 52-week high of $433.86.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.12. Wingstop had a net margin of 25.61% and a negative return on equity of 17.07%. The firm had revenue of $174.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.93 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Wingstop will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This is a positive change from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wingstop news, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total transaction of $1,666,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 42,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,842,034.18. The trade was a 9.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.09, for a total value of $2,030,886.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 8,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,144,864.58. This represents a 39.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,838 shares of company stock valued at $8,118,535. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Wingstop

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WING. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Wingstop by 760.9% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 381,745 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $108,497,000 after purchasing an additional 337,401 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in Wingstop by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,547 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,008,000 after purchasing an additional 688 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Wingstop by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 3,144 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $894,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in Wingstop by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 20,152 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,727,000 after purchasing an additional 3,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FORA Capital LLC raised its holdings in Wingstop by 97.3% during the 4th quarter. FORA Capital LLC now owns 12,670 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,601,000 after purchasing an additional 6,249 shares during the last quarter.

About Wingstop

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.