Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Has $1.22 Million Stock Holdings in Wingstop Inc. $WING

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 26.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,613 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 748 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $1,217,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WING. Amundi raised its stake in Wingstop by 289.2% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 18,595 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,514,000 after acquiring an additional 13,817 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 66.3% during the 1st quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 446,601 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $100,744,000 after purchasing an additional 178,041 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Wingstop by 16.7% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 79,225 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,872,000 after purchasing an additional 11,329 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in Wingstop by 501.1% during the 1st quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,112 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $251,000 after purchasing an additional 927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Carnegie Investment Counsel lifted its stake in Wingstop by 32.3% in the 1st quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 47,200 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,431,000 after purchasing an additional 11,525 shares during the last quarter.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Marisa Carona sold 11,938 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total transaction of $4,421,118.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.09, for a total transaction of $2,030,886.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 8,362 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,144,864.58. The trade was a 39.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,838 shares of company stock worth $8,118,535. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wingstop Stock Up 4.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:WING opened at $257.04 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.84, a P/E/G ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.78. Wingstop Inc. has a 12-month low of $204.00 and a 12-month high of $388.14. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $286.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $298.92.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.12. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 17.07% and a net margin of 25.61%.The firm had revenue of $174.33 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.93 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. This is a boost from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Wingstop’s payout ratio is currently 20.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on WING. Westpark Capital raised shares of Wingstop to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $350.00 price objective (down previously from $420.00) on shares of Wingstop in a report on Thursday. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Wingstop from $325.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Wingstop from $275.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Benchmark cut their price target on Wingstop from $410.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $366.73.

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.