Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) Plans $0.27 Quarterly Dividend

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of 0.27 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th.

Wingstop has raised its dividend by an average of 16.5% annually over the last three years. Wingstop has a payout ratio of 19.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Wingstop to earn $4.28 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.2%.

Wingstop Trading Down 6.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:WING traded down $17.93 on Thursday, reaching $247.09. 1,947,937 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 727,895. Wingstop has a 52 week low of $242.58 and a 52 week high of $433.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.81. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $291.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $341.94.

Wingstop announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, December 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 5.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 266 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 266 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $86,285.08. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $330.00 target price (down from $375.00) on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Wingstop from $335.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Wingstop from $359.00 to $315.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $458.00 to $377.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, October 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $367.05.

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.