Wingstop Inc. $WING Shares Sold by Raymond James Financial Inc.

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial Inc. reduced its holdings in Wingstop Inc. by 22.3%, now owning approximately 1.13% of the company, worth about $71.15 million.
• Wingstop reported earnings of $1.00 per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, with revenues reaching $174.33 million, a 12% increase year-over-year.
• The company recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.27 to $0.30, reflecting a 0.4% yield and demonstrating a commitment to returning capital to shareholders.

Raymond James Financial Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING - Free Report) by 22.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 315,396 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 90,308 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 1.13% of Wingstop worth $71,147,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WING. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the fourth quarter worth about $291,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Wingstop by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 285,743 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $81,214,000 after buying an additional 18,958 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Wingstop by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 17,762 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $5,048,000 after buying an additional 1,279 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of Wingstop by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,352 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $384,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Finally, OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Wingstop by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 740 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $210,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They set an "overweight" rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Wingstop from $367.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Wingstop from $375.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. TD Securities restated a "buy" rating and set a $440.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. Finally, Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wingstop has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $379.52.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Marisa Carona sold 11,938 shares of the 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 $4,421,118.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 4,500 shares of the 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 $1,666,530.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 42,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,842,034.18. The trade was a 9.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,838 shares of company stock valued at $11,491,935. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wingstop Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of Wingstop stock opened at $329.26 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.88, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 1.84. Wingstop Inc. has a 52 week low of $204.00 and a 52 week high of $433.86. The firm's 50 day moving average is $334.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.20.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING - Get Free Report) last posted 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 business 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 revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

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

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.

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