Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Has $371.52 Million Stock Position in Wingstop Inc. $WING

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. increased its stake in Wingstop by 43.2%, now owning approximately 5.90% of the company, valued at $371.52 million.
• Several equity analysts have raised their price targets for Wingstop, with Goldman Sachs increasing theirs from $310 to $390 and Stephens raising theirs to $425.
• Wingstop has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.30, up from the previous $0.27, with a yield of 0.4%.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING - Free Report) by 43.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,646,934 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after acquiring an additional 496,717 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 5.90% of Wingstop worth $371,517,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 36.0% in the fourth quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 36,780 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $10,453,000 after purchasing an additional 9,735 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital acquired a new position in Wingstop during the first quarter worth approximately $269,000. Wesbanco Bank Inc. increased its position in Wingstop by 79.2% during the first quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 6,111 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,379,000 after purchasing an additional 2,700 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC increased its position in Wingstop by 66.3% during the first quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 446,601 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $100,744,000 after purchasing an additional 178,041 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC increased its position in Wingstop by 167.4% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 2,035 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $459,000 after purchasing an additional 1,274 shares during the last quarter.

Wingstop Stock Performance

Shares of WING stock traded up $13.99 on Wednesday, hitting $339.33. The stock had a trading volume of 581,775 shares, compared to its average volume of 818,731. Wingstop Inc. has a 52-week low of $204.00 and a 52-week high of $433.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.56, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.84. The stock's 50 day moving average is $332.58 and its 200-day moving average is $290.60.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $174.33 million for 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 quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.93 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. This is an increase from Wingstop's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Wingstop's payout ratio is presently 20.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Marisa Carona sold 11,938 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total value of $4,421,118.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.09, for a total transaction of $2,030,886.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 8,362 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,144,864.58. This represents a 39.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,838 shares of company stock worth $8,118,535 in the last ninety days. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Wingstop from $275.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They set an "overweight" rating for the company. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $325.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. TD Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $440.00 price objective on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Wingstop from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, August 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $379.52.

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.