Wingstop’s (WING) Overweight Rating Reaffirmed at Stephens

Stephens restated their overweight rating on shares of Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has a $425.00 price objective on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $310.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Westpark Capital raised shares of Wingstop to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $440.00 price objective on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. Finally, Melius initiated coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Monday, July 14th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $350.00 price objective on the stock. Four research 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $379.52.

Wingstop Trading Up 1.3%

Wingstop stock opened at $322.83 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $9.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.81, a PEG ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 1.87. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $329.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $291.67. Wingstop has a 52 week low of $204.00 and a 52 week high of $433.86.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $174.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $172.60 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 25.61% and a negative return on equity of 17.07%. Wingstop’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.93 EPS. Research analysts expect that Wingstop will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. This is an increase from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 20.00%.

Insider Transactions at Wingstop

In related news, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.09, for a total transaction of $2,030,886.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 8,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,144,864.58. This trade represents a 39.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total transaction of $1,666,530.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 42,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,842,034.18. This represents a 9.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,838 shares of company stock valued at $8,118,535 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Wingstop

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WING. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the first quarter worth approximately $212,672,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Wingstop by 43.2% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,646,934 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $371,517,000 after acquiring an additional 496,717 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in Wingstop by 130.7% in the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 631,989 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $142,564,000 after acquiring an additional 358,044 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Wingstop in the second quarter valued at approximately $118,211,000. Finally, Wasatch Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Wingstop in the second quarter valued at approximately $114,758,000.

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.