Oak Thistle LLC Makes New $368,000 Investment in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $368,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Wingstop by 284.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 383,184 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $161,957,000 after purchasing an additional 283,412 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Wingstop by 984.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 217,946 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $90,683,000 after buying an additional 197,853 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Wingstop by 392.5% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 184,068 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $76,587,000 after buying an additional 146,692 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 465,368 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $193,630,000 after acquiring an additional 134,802 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Wingstop by 66.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 325,920 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $137,753,000 after acquiring an additional 130,248 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WING has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Wingstop from $470.00 to $380.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup raised their target price on Wingstop from $417.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Wingstop from $375.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. BTIG Research raised Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Benchmark raised shares of Wingstop from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.74.

Insider Transactions at Wingstop

In other news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 266 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.38, for a total value of $86,285.08. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 266 shares in the company, valued at $86,285.08. This trade represents a 50.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wingstop Stock Performance

Shares of WING opened at $274.80 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $310.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $357.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.12, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.81. Wingstop Inc. has a 52 week low of $265.59 and a 52 week high of $433.86.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $162.50 million for 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%. The company’s revenue was up 38.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.69 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Wingstop Inc. will post 3.67 EPS for the current year.

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is 31.49%.

Wingstop declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, December 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to buy up to 5.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wingstop 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.