Wingstop’s (WING) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at TD Cowen

TD Cowen reiterated their buy rating on shares of Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $450.00 price objective on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Wingstop from $375.00 to $398.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Wingstop from $310.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Wingstop from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Wingstop from $275.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Wedbush restated an outperform rating and set a $425.00 price target on shares of Wingstop in a report on Friday, July 19th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Wingstop has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $358.32.

Wingstop Price Performance

WING stock opened at $362.70 on Wednesday. Wingstop has a 12 month low of $150.08 and a 12 month high of $431.03. The firm has a market cap of $10.63 billion, a PE ratio of 129.07, a P/E/G ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.69. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $393.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $361.47.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.11. Wingstop had a net margin of 17.33% and a negative return on equity of 20.97%. The business had revenue of $155.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $146.04 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.57 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 45.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Wingstop will post 3.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. This is a positive change from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.32%.

Insider Transactions at Wingstop

In other news, SVP Albert G. Mcgrath sold 4,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $396.40, for a total transaction of $1,676,772.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,170 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,238,588. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Kate S. Lavelle sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.57, for a total transaction of $295,927.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,407,431.19. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Albert G. Mcgrath sold 4,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $396.40, for a total transaction of $1,676,772.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,170 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,238,588. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 6,191 shares of company stock worth $2,443,547 in the last 90 days. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Wingstop

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 250,653 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $105,941,000 after buying an additional 3,036 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP boosted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 521.8% during the 2nd quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 4,981 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,105,000 after buying an additional 4,180 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 821 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $347,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the 2nd quarter worth $423,000. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the 2nd quarter worth $273,000.

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.