Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) Short Interest Update

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,810,000 shares, a growth of 36.1% from the November 30th total of 1,330,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 518,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days. Currently, 6.2% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wingstop news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 266 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.38, for a total value of $86,285.08. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 266 shares in the company, valued at $86,285.08. The trade was a 50.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Wingstop

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fulton Bank N.A. increased its holdings in Wingstop by 5.0% in the third quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 547 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $228,000 after buying an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Wingstop by 3.7% in the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 821 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $347,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of Wingstop by 4.3% in the second quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 752 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $318,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Wingstop by 53.8% during the 3rd quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 100 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its position in shares of Wingstop by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 11,523 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,794,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WING has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Wingstop from $375.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $450.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. BTIG Research raised shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $370.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $458.00 to $377.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Wingstop from $417.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.74.

Wingstop Trading Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ:WING opened at $285.37 on Monday. Wingstop has a 12-month low of $241.78 and a 12-month high of $433.86. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $324.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $369.90. The firm has a market cap of $8.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 83.20, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.78.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $162.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $160.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Wingstop will post 3.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, December 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 5.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.49%.

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.