William Blair Issues Positive Outlook for Wingstop Earnings

Key Points

• William Blair has raised its FY2026 earnings per share estimate for Wingstop to $5.04, from a previous estimate of $4.98, maintaining an "Outperform" rating.
• The Goldman Sachs Group increased Wingstop's price target from $310 to $390, indicating strong analyst support for the stock, while other firms also recently adjusted their price targets upward.
• Wingstop declared a quarterly dividend of $0.30, showing an increase from the previous $0.27 per share, highlighting the company's solid financial position.

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING - Free Report) - Equities researchers at William Blair upped their FY2026 earnings per share estimates for shares of Wingstop in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, September 17th. William Blair analyst S. Zackfia now expects that the restaurant operator will post earnings of $5.04 per share for the year, up from their previous estimate of $4.98. William Blair has a "Outperform" rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Wingstop's current full-year earnings is $4.18 per share.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.00 EPS 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 analysts' expectations of $172.60 million. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 17.07% and a net margin of 25.61%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.93 EPS.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Wingstop from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Wingstop from $296.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Westpark Capital upgraded Wingstop to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. BTIG Research upped their price objective on Wingstop from $350.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded Wingstop from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $420.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.52.

Wingstop Stock Performance

NASDAQ WING traded down $2.10 during trading on Friday, hitting $253.73. The stock had a trading volume of 281,837 shares, compared to its average volume of 826,331. The company has a market capitalization of $7.08 billion, a PE ratio of 42.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.87. The company's 50-day moving average price is $315.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $295.26. Wingstop has a 12 month low of $204.00 and a 12 month high of $433.86.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wingstop

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WING. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Wingstop in the first quarter valued at about $212,672,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Wingstop by 43.2% in the first 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 purchasing an additional 496,717 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its position in Wingstop by 130.7% in the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 631,989 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $142,564,000 after purchasing an additional 358,044 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Wingstop in the second quarter valued at about $118,211,000. Finally, Wasatch Advisors LP bought a new position in Wingstop in the second quarter valued at about $114,758,000.

Insider Activity at Wingstop

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

Wingstop Increases Dividend

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