Wingstop’s (WING) “Overweight” Rating Reaffirmed at Stephens

Stephens reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) in a research note published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $456.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on WING. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $421.00 to $461.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Benchmark restated a hold rating on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Wingstop from $393.00 to $407.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on Wingstop from $430.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $377.53.

Wingstop Stock Down 2.4 %

NASDAQ WING opened at $362.70 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $393.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $362.10. Wingstop has a twelve month low of $150.08 and a twelve month high of $431.03. The company has a market capitalization of $10.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.08, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.70.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $155.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $146.04 million. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 17.33%. Wingstop’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Wingstop will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. This is a boost from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. Wingstop’s payout ratio is presently 31.32%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Albert G. Mcgrath sold 4,230 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $396.40, for a total transaction of $1,676,772.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,170 shares in the company, valued at $3,238,588. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Albert G. Mcgrath sold 4,230 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $396.40, for a total transaction of $1,676,772.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,170 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,238,588. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kate S. Lavelle sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.57, for a total transaction of $295,927.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,407,431.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,191 shares of company stock worth $2,443,547. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 3.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,924,326 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,071,473,000 after acquiring an additional 104,780 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Wingstop by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,273,542 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $833,026,000 after purchasing an additional 101,917 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Wingstop by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,107,852 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $284,253,000 after purchasing an additional 19,540 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Wingstop by 155.7% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 873,385 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $224,093,000 after buying an additional 531,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in shares of Wingstop in the fourth quarter worth approximately $103,899,000.

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.