Quest Partners LLC Acquires New Position in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 2,566 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,085,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WING. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 3.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,924,326 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,071,473,000 after purchasing an additional 104,780 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 4.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,273,542 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $833,026,000 after purchasing an additional 101,917 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 155.7% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 873,385 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $224,093,000 after purchasing an additional 531,880 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in shares of Wingstop during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $103,899,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 396,258 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $101,673,000 after purchasing an additional 8,058 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on WING shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a report on Thursday, August 1st. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Raymond James raised Wingstop from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $475.00 price objective on shares of Wingstop in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Wingstop from $418.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Wingstop has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $378.65.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Donnie Upshaw sold 3,199 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.71, for a total transaction of $1,192,299.29. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 97 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,152.87. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Wingstop Price Performance

WING opened at $379.93 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 135.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 1.71. Wingstop Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.38 and a 1-year high of $431.03. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $380.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $378.64.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.11. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 17.33%. The company had revenue of $155.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $146.04 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 45.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Wingstop Inc. will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This is an increase from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is 38.43%.

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.