William Blair Has Pessimistic View of Wingstop Q3 Earnings

Key Points

• William Blair has revised its Q3 2025 earnings per share estimate for Wingstop down from $1.00 to $0.95, while maintaining an "Outperform" rating on the stock.
• Wingstop reported Q2 earnings of $1.00 EPS, exceeding analyst expectations of $0.88 EPS, alongside a revenue of $174.33 million, which is a 12% increase from the previous year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend increase, now at $0.30 per share, which reflects a boost from $0.27 and will be paid to shareholders of record on August 15th.

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING - Free Report) - William Blair reduced their Q3 2025 EPS estimates for shares of Wingstop in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, July 30th. William Blair analyst S. Zackfia now anticipates that the restaurant operator will post earnings per share of $0.95 for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $1.00. William Blair currently has a "Outperform" rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Wingstop's current full-year earnings is $4.18 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Wingstop's Q4 2025 earnings at $0.98 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $4.98 EPS.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on WING. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Wingstop from $275.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Wingstop from $367.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. BTIG Research increased their target price on shares of Wingstop from $350.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Truist Financial raised shares of Wingstop from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $274.00 to $400.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Stephens increased their target price on shares of Wingstop from $400.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $379.52.

Wingstop Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of Wingstop stock traded down $14.89 on Friday, hitting $362.45. 1,199,950 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 770,947. Wingstop has a 12-month low of $204.00 and a 12-month high of $433.86. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $340.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $285.99. The company has a market cap of $10.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.41, a P/E/G ratio of 4.85 and a beta of 1.84.

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 firm had revenue of $174.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $172.60 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 25.61% and a negative return on equity of 17.07%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.93 EPS.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Wingstop in the first quarter worth about $212,672,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in Wingstop in the fourth quarter worth about $151,802,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings 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 worth $371,517,000 after buying an additional 496,717 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Wingstop by 130.7% in the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 631,989 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $142,564,000 after buying an additional 358,044 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Wingstop by 760.9% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 381,745 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $108,497,000 after buying an additional 337,401 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Activity at Wingstop

In related news, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.09, for a total transaction of $2,030,886.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marisa Carona sold 11,938 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total transaction of $4,421,118.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 32,475 shares of company stock worth $11,665,881. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. This is a positive change from Wingstop's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Wingstop's payout ratio is presently 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.