American Century Companies Inc. Buys 22,552 Shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,206,062 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,552 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $342,763,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WING. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Wingstop in the fourth quarter worth about $115,301,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 984.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 217,946 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $90,683,000 after purchasing an additional 197,853 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 146,692 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 40.8% in the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 465,368 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $193,630,000 after purchasing an additional 134,802 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 20.5% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 418,418 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $174,095,000 after purchasing an additional 71,300 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Wingstop from $335.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $330.00 price objective (down from $375.00) on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $330.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Wingstop from $389.00 to $375.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Wingstop from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Wingstop has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $357.67.

Wingstop Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:WING opened at $215.46 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.18 billion, a PE ratio of 58.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.88. Wingstop Inc. has a twelve month low of $205.60 and a twelve month high of $433.86. The company’s 50 day moving average is $262.51 and its 200 day moving average is $318.12.

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 29.11%.

Wingstop announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 5.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.