Carnegie Investment Counsel Boosts Stock Position in Wingstop Inc. $WING

Carnegie Investment Counsel lifted its position in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 9.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 51,436 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,236 shares during the period. Carnegie Investment Counsel’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $17,321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Wingstop by 43.2% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,646,934 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $371,517,000 after purchasing an additional 496,717 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 4.7% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,262,597 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $284,817,000 after purchasing an additional 56,535 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Wingstop in the first quarter worth approximately $212,672,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 29.8% in the first quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 693,115 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $156,353,000 after purchasing an additional 158,977 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Wingstop by 130.7% during the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 631,989 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $142,564,000 after acquiring an additional 358,044 shares during the last quarter.

Wingstop Trading Down 1.4%

NASDAQ WING opened at $259.14 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $280.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $299.26. The stock has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.78. Wingstop Inc. has a 12-month low of $204.00 and a 12-month high of $388.14.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $174.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.60 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 25.61% and a negative return on equity of 17.07%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This is a positive change from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Wingstop’s payout ratio is presently 20.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $315.00 price objective on the stock. Benchmark reduced their target price on shares of Wingstop from $410.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Wingstop from $415.00 to $365.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Wingstop from $430.00 to $420.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Wingstop from $325.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wingstop currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $362.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Wingstop news, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 4,500 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total transaction of $1,666,530.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 42,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,842,034.18. The trade was a 9.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.09, for a total transaction of $2,030,886.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 8,362 shares in the company, valued at $3,144,864.58. This trade represents a 39.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 21,838 shares of company stock worth $8,118,535. Insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

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.