Employees Retirement System of Texas Invests $163,000 in Wingstop Inc. $WING

Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 484 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $163,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WING. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Wingstop in the first quarter worth about $212,672,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Wingstop by 43.2% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,646,934 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $371,517,000 after purchasing an additional 496,717 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Wingstop by 130.7% during the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 631,989 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $142,564,000 after purchasing an additional 358,044 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 83.1% in the 2nd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 737,369 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $248,302,000 after purchasing an additional 334,583 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Wingstop by 23.3% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,557,383 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $524,433,000 after purchasing an additional 294,786 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on WING shares. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Wingstop from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Wingstop from $320.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Wingstop to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Wingstop from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $335.96.

Insider Activity at Wingstop

In other news, Director Kilandigalu Madati sold 269 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.97, for a total transaction of $69,931.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,283 shares in the company, valued at $1,373,421.51. The trade was a 4.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.72% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wingstop Stock Up 2.2%

Shares of NASDAQ WING opened at $264.89 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 1.73. Wingstop Inc. has a 52 week low of $204.00 and a 52 week high of $388.14. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $246.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $299.73.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.18. Wingstop had a net margin of 25.51% and a negative return on equity of 16.17%. The firm had revenue of $175.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.10 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 21st will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 21st. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.54%.

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.