Royal Bank of Canada Purchases 22,600 Shares of Wingstop Inc. $WING

Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING - Free Report) by 24.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 114,122 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 22,600 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.41% of Wingstop worth $25,743,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Graham Capital Management L.P. boosted its stake in Wingstop by 336.6% in the first quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. now owns 3,833 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $865,000 after purchasing an additional 2,955 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its stake in Wingstop by 140.7% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 349 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Wingstop during the first quarter valued at $256,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Wingstop by 130.7% during the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 631,989 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $142,564,000 after acquiring an additional 358,044 shares during the period. Finally, D L Carlson Investment Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Wingstop by 63.9% during the first quarter. D L Carlson Investment Group Inc. now owns 14,860 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $3,352,000 after acquiring an additional 5,796 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on WING shares. Truist Financial raised Wingstop from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $274.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Wingstop from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Westpark Capital raised Wingstop to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Wingstop from $310.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Wingstop from $405.00 to $375.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $380.52.

Wingstop Stock Performance

Shares of WING stock traded down $17.33 on Tuesday, hitting $287.45. The company had a trading volume of 1,890,291 shares, compared to its average volume of 717,505. Wingstop Inc. has a twelve month low of $204.00 and a twelve month high of $433.86. The stock's 50-day moving average is $326.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $292.68. The firm has a market cap of $8.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.87.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $174.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.60 million. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 17.07% and a net margin of 25.61%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This is a boost from Wingstop's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Wingstop's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.00%.

Insider Activity

In other Wingstop news, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of the company'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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 8,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,144,864.58. This represents a 39.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 4,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total value of $1,666,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 42,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,842,034.18. This represents a 9.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,838 shares of company stock valued at $8,118,535. Insiders own 0.72% of the company's stock.

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.