Wedbush Weighs in on Wingstop Inc.’s Q2 2024 Earnings (NASDAQ:WING)

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) – Equities research analysts at Wedbush lifted their Q2 2024 earnings per share estimates for shares of Wingstop in a report released on Thursday, May 2nd. Wedbush analyst N. Setyan now anticipates that the restaurant operator will earn $0.74 per share for the quarter, up from their prior forecast of $0.72. Wedbush has a “Outperform” rating and a $425.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for Wingstop’s current full-year earnings is $3.15 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for Wingstop’s Q3 2024 earnings at $0.84 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $3.35 EPS and Q3 2025 earnings at $1.05 EPS.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $145.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $136.34 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 16.75% and a negative return on equity of 19.64%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 34.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.59 earnings per share.

WING has been the subject of several other reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Wingstop from $270.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Wingstop from $275.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays increased their price target on Wingstop from $350.00 to $418.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $421.00 to $461.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Wingstop from $310.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $330.39.

Wingstop Trading Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ WING opened at $388.55 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $360.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $288.72. Wingstop has a 52 week low of $150.08 and a 52 week high of $396.00. The stock has a market cap of $11.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 138.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.30 and a beta of 1.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Congress Asset Management Co. MA grew its stake in Wingstop by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 11,380 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,920,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in Wingstop by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 263 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. grew its position in Wingstop by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 2,319 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $595,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Wingstop by 53.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 115 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its position in Wingstop by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 13,150 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,365,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter.

Insider Activity at Wingstop

In related news, SVP Marisa Carona sold 2,586 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.96, for a total value of $961,888.56. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,646 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $612,246.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Wingstop news, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 10,843 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.40, for a total transaction of $3,658,428.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,107 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,771,901.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Marisa Carona sold 2,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.96, for a total value of $961,888.56. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,646 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $612,246.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,901 shares of company stock worth $5,120,605 in the last quarter. 0.36% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is 31.32%.

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.