Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Trims Stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System cut its stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 2.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,300 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $3,508,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Congress Asset Management Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 11,380 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,920,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 60.3% in the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 93 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its position in shares of Wingstop by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 263 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Wingstop by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 2,319 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $595,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Wingstop by 53.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 115 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on WING shares. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $475.00 price target on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Wingstop from $345.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Raymond James raised shares of Wingstop from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Wingstop from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Wingstop from $375.00 to $398.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $378.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wingstop news, Director Kilandigalu Madati sold 645 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $395.74, for a total transaction of $255,252.30. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,036,873.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Kilandigalu Madati sold 645 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $395.74, for a total transaction of $255,252.30. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,036,873.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Donnie Upshaw sold 3,199 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.71, for a total value of $1,192,299.29. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 97 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,152.87. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wingstop Stock Performance

Wingstop stock traded up $19.53 during trading on Friday, reaching $403.10. The company had a trading volume of 279,032 shares, compared to its average volume of 454,627. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $389.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $370.75. Wingstop Inc. has a 1-year low of $150.08 and a 1-year high of $431.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.81 billion, a PE ratio of 136.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.70.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.11. Wingstop had a net margin of 17.33% and a negative return on equity of 21.18%. The company had revenue of $155.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $146.04 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 45.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Wingstop Inc. will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. This is a boost from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 38.43%.

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.