Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report issued on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $389.00 price objective on the restaurant operator’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $385.00.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on WING. Citigroup increased their target price on Wingstop from $417.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $375.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $468.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $390.00 price target on shares of Wingstop in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Northcoast Research raised Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.16.

Wingstop Price Performance

WING opened at $288.53 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.12, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.81. Wingstop has a 1-year low of $266.45 and a 1-year high of $433.86. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $303.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $352.24.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.09). Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 22.69% and a net margin of 17.05%. The business had revenue of $162.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $160.24 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Wingstop will post 3.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.37%. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.49%.

Wingstop declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 5.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 266 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.38, for a total transaction of $86,285.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 266 shares in the company, valued at $86,285.08. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wingstop

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Driehaus Capital Management LLC grew its position in Wingstop by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 193,307 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $81,703,000 after purchasing an additional 7,600 shares during the last quarter. Scientech Research LLC acquired a new position in shares of Wingstop during the second quarter worth approximately $2,249,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Wingstop in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $5,010,000. Conway Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Wingstop in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,544,000. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Wingstop by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 465,368 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $193,630,000 after acquiring an additional 134,802 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.