Raymond James Financial Reaffirms "Strong-Buy" Rating for Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING)

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial has reaffirmed a "Strong-Buy" rating for Wingstop's stock, with a new target price of $350.00, reflecting a 41.82% potential upside from the previous close.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on Wingstop, with four ratings as Strong Buy, twenty-one as Buy, and one as Sell, leading to a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".
• Wingstop's recent performance includes a quarterly earnings report showing a profit of $1.00 EPS and revenue growth of 12.0% year-over-year, despite recent stock price fluctuations.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "strong-buy" rating reissued by equities research analysts at Raymond James Financial in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $350.00 target price on the restaurant operator's stock, down from their prior target price of $420.00. Raymond James Financial's price objective points to a potential upside of 41.82% from the company's previous close.

WING has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Stephens set a $375.00 price target on Wingstop in a research report on Monday. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Wingstop from $296.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Wingstop from $335.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Wingstop from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $366.73.

Wingstop Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WING traded down $3.51 during trading on Thursday, reaching $246.79. The stock had a trading volume of 324,367 shares, compared to its average volume of 826,806. Wingstop has a one year low of $204.00 and a one year high of $388.14. The stock has a market cap of $6.89 billion, a PE ratio of 41.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.78. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $289.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $298.20.

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 analysts' consensus estimates 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 firm's revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.93 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Wingstop will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wingstop news, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of the company'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 transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marisa Carona sold 11,938 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was 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 a total of 21,838 shares of company stock valued at $8,118,535 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.72% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Amundi grew its holdings in Wingstop by 289.2% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 18,595 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $4,514,000 after buying an additional 13,817 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Wingstop by 66.3% during the 1st quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 446,601 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $100,744,000 after buying an additional 178,041 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Wingstop by 16.7% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 79,225 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $17,872,000 after purchasing an additional 11,329 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in Wingstop by 501.1% during the 1st quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,112 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $251,000 after purchasing an additional 927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Carnegie Investment Counsel increased its holdings in Wingstop by 32.3% during the 1st quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 47,200 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $10,431,000 after purchasing an additional 11,525 shares in the last quarter.

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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