Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) to Buyback $500.00 million in Outstanding Shares

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, December 5th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 5.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wingstop Trading Up 0.8 %

WING stock opened at $340.09 on Friday. Wingstop has a 1-year low of $240.60 and a 1-year high of $433.86. The stock has a market cap of $9.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 99.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.78. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $354.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $378.71.

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

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.32%. Wingstop’s payout ratio is currently 31.49%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.