Wingstop Inc. $WING Shares Sold by Raymond James Financial Inc.

Raymond James Financial Inc. cut its stake in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 22.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 315,396 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 90,308 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc.’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $71,147,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WING. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the fourth quarter worth $151,802,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 760.9% during the fourth 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 period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 29.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,150,217 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $326,893,000 after purchasing an additional 262,229 shares during the period. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 66.3% during the first quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 446,601 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $100,744,000 after purchasing an additional 178,041 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 95.2% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 359,304 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $102,114,000 after purchasing an additional 175,236 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on WING. Melius began coverage on Wingstop in a research report on Monday, July 14th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $350.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America cut their price objective on Wingstop from $430.00 to $420.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Wingstop from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Barclays increased their price objective on Wingstop from $410.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Gordon Haskett upgraded Wingstop to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Wingstop presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $379.52.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 8,362 shares in the company, valued at $3,144,864.58. This trade represents a 39.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Marisa Carona sold 11,938 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total value of $4,421,118.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,838 shares of company stock worth $11,491,935 over the last 90 days. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wingstop Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of WING stock opened at $329.26 on Thursday. Wingstop Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $204.00 and a fifty-two week high of $433.86. The stock has a market cap of $9.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.88, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 1.84. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $334.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $290.20.

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

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a $0.30 dividend. This is an increase from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.00%.

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.