Wingstop’s (WING) “Overweight” Rating Reaffirmed at Stephens

Stephens reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has a $468.00 target price on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. BTIG Research raised shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Wingstop from $417.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on Wingstop from $450.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $458.00 to $377.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.74.

Wingstop Trading Down 3.4 %

WING stock opened at $328.54 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $352.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $378.34. Wingstop has a 12 month low of $240.60 and a 12 month high of $433.86. The company has a market cap of $9.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 95.78, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.78.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $162.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $160.24 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 17.05% and a negative return on equity of 22.69%. Wingstop’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.69 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Wingstop will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, December 5th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 5.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Wingstop’s payout ratio is currently 31.49%.

Institutional Trading of Wingstop

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of WING. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Wingstop by 284.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 383,184 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $161,957,000 after purchasing an additional 283,412 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Wingstop by 984.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 217,946 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $90,683,000 after buying an additional 197,853 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Wingstop by 36.6% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 602,990 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $254,860,000 after acquiring an additional 161,600 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in Wingstop by 392.5% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 184,068 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $76,587,000 after acquiring an additional 146,692 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Wingstop by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 465,368 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $193,630,000 after purchasing an additional 134,802 shares during the last quarter.

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.