Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $2.13 Million in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 8,300 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $2,130,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WING. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 93,246 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $10,942,000 after purchasing an additional 3,423 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Wingstop during the 1st quarter worth $271,000. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 80,599 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $9,458,000 after purchasing an additional 1,259 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 10,931 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,283,000 after purchasing an additional 1,042 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,586,391 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $420,864,000 after purchasing an additional 51,296 shares during the period.

Wingstop Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of Wingstop stock opened at $359.57 on Thursday. Wingstop Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $150.08 and a fifty-two week high of $379.00. The firm has a market cap of $10.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 153.01, a P/E/G ratio of 6.57 and a beta of 1.68. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $346.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $272.61.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The restaurant operator reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $127.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.47 million. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 15.25%. The business’s revenue was up 21.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Wingstop Inc. will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 37.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 10,843 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.40, for a total transaction of $3,658,428.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 17,107 shares in the company, valued at $5,771,901.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 10,843 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.40, for a total transaction of $3,658,428.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,107 shares in the company, valued at $5,771,901.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kilandigalu Madati sold 1,472 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.87, for a total value of $500,288.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,291.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,901 shares of company stock worth $5,120,605 over the last ninety days. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WING. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Wingstop from $235.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $320.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $280.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $290.83.

Wingstop 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.