Platinum Investment Management Ltd. Purchases Shares of 6,000 Wingstop Inc. $WING

Key Points

• Platinum Investment Management Ltd. acquired 6,000 shares of Wingstop Inc., valued at approximately $2,020,000, during the second quarter, signaling a growing interest in the restaurant operator's stock.
• Wingstop's recent earnings report showed a quarterly revenue of $174.33 million, surpassing analysts' expectations, as well as a quarterly EPS of $1.00, exceeding the consensus estimate of $0.88.
• Several analysts have adjusted their price targets for Wingstop, with UBS Group raising it to $385.00 while TD Securities maintained a "buy" rating with a price objective of $440.00.

Platinum Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 6,000 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $2,020,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WING. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Wingstop in the 1st quarter valued at $212,672,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Wingstop by 43.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,646,934 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $371,517,000 after buying an additional 496,717 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in Wingstop by 130.7% in the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 631,989 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $142,564,000 after buying an additional 358,044 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Wingstop by 64.4% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 550,879 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $123,295,000 after buying an additional 215,816 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC increased its stake in Wingstop by 66.3% in the 1st quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 446,601 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $100,744,000 after buying an additional 178,041 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Wingstop from $335.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. TD Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $440.00 price objective on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $430.00 to $370.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Wingstop from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, September 13th. Finally, Stephens reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Wingstop presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $376.92.

Wingstop Stock Performance

Shares of WING stock opened at $262.56 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.76, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $305.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $296.00. Wingstop Inc. has a 52 week low of $204.00 and a 52 week high of $425.00.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $174.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.60 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 25.61% and a negative return on equity of 17.07%. Wingstop's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.93 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This is a positive change from Wingstop's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Wingstop's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wingstop news, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.09, for a total value of $2,030,886.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 8,362 shares in the company, valued at $3,144,864.58. The trade was a 39.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 4,500 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total transaction of $1,666,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 42,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,842,034.18. This trade represents a 9.52% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,838 shares of company stock worth $8,118,535 in the last quarter. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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