Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) to Buyback $500.00 million in Outstanding Stock

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, December 5th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to buy up to 5.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WING has been the topic of a number of research reports. BTIG Research upgraded shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Stephens reduced their price objective on Wingstop from $490.00 to $468.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup lifted their target price on Wingstop from $417.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. TD Cowen cut their price target on Wingstop from $450.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $390.00 price objective on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.74.

Wingstop Price Performance

Shares of WING opened at $340.09 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $354.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $378.72. The stock has a market cap of $9.93 billion, a PE ratio of 99.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.78. Wingstop has a 1-year low of $240.60 and a 1-year high of $433.86.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $162.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $160.24 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 17.05% and a negative return on equity of 22.69%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Wingstop will post 3.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.49%.

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.