Stephens Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING)

Stephens restated their overweight rating on shares of Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $425.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on WING. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Wingstop from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Benchmark reaffirmed a hold rating on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Wingstop from $310.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Wingstop from $320.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $330.39.

Wingstop Stock Performance

NASDAQ WING opened at $388.55 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $11.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 135.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.60 and a beta of 1.67. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $359.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $286.56. Wingstop has a fifty-two week low of $150.08 and a fifty-two week high of $396.00.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.22. Wingstop had a net margin of 16.75% and a negative return on equity of 19.64%. The business had revenue of $145.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $136.34 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Wingstop will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 31.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Wingstop news, Director Kilandigalu Madati sold 1,472 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.87, for a total transaction of $500,288.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,291.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Kilandigalu Madati sold 1,472 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.87, for a total value of $500,288.64. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,291.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 approximately $5,771,901.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,901 shares of company stock worth $5,120,605. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Wingstop

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Congress Asset Management Co. MA lifted its holdings in Wingstop by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 11,380 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,920,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 263 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Wingstop by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 2,319 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $595,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Wingstop by 53.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 115 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its position in shares of Wingstop by 0.5% during the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 13,150 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,365,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period.

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.