Man Group plc Buys 97,855 Shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Man Group plc raised its stake in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING - Free Report) by 33.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 387,956 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 97,855 shares during the period. Man Group plc owned 1.33% of Wingstop worth $110,257,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WING. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in Wingstop during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,102,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Wingstop by 85.8% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 233,219 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $66,281,000 after buying an additional 107,695 shares during the last quarter. J. Goldman & Co LP boosted its stake in Wingstop by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. J. Goldman & Co LP now owns 3,461 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $984,000 after buying an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its stake in Wingstop by 95.2% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 359,304 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $102,114,000 after buying an additional 175,236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Wingstop by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 17,880 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $5,079,000 after buying an additional 812 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WING has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Wingstop from $271.00 to $272.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. UBS Group dropped their price target on Wingstop from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Wedbush dropped their price target on Wingstop from $390.00 to $355.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Wingstop from $375.00 to $350.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Wingstop from $389.00 to $375.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $331.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wingstop news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 637 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.07, for a total transaction of $173,945.59. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 517 shares in the company, valued at $141,177.19. This trade represents a 55.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wingstop Trading Up 4.1%

Shares of NASDAQ WING traded up $12.60 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $321.08. The company's stock had a trading volume of 891,100 shares, compared to its average volume of 614,597. The business's 50 day moving average is $238.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $274.92. Wingstop Inc. has a 12-month low of $204.00 and a 12-month high of $433.86. The firm has a market cap of $8.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 86.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.80.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $171.09 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.25 million. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 21.59% and a net margin of 17.37%. Wingstop's quarterly revenue was up 17.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. Wingstop's payout ratio is currently 18.09%.

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.