Scientech Research LLC Purchases Shares of 5,322 Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Scientech Research LLC purchased a new stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 5,322 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $2,249,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new position in shares of Wingstop in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,355,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 279,938 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $71,827,000 after acquiring an additional 36,017 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Wingstop in the 4th quarter valued at about $807,000. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 206.6% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,287 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $967,000 after acquiring an additional 1,541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in Wingstop by 1,308.1% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 24,951 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $9,142,000 after purchasing an additional 23,179 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Transactions at Wingstop

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

Wingstop Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of WING stock opened at $426.46 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $12.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 151.77, a PEG ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.71. The company’s 50 day moving average is $385.89 and its 200 day moving average is $383.01. Wingstop Inc. has a 52-week low of $170.83 and a 52-week high of $433.86.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $155.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $146.04 million. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 17.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 45.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.57 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Wingstop Inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This is an increase from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.43%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on WING. Raymond James raised shares of Wingstop from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $475.00 price objective on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $407.00 to $458.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $353.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $418.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $379.53.

Wingstop 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.