Oak Thistle LLC Invests $368,000 in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $368,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Driehaus Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 4.1% in the second quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 193,307 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $81,703,000 after buying an additional 7,600 shares in the last quarter. Scientech Research LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the second quarter worth $2,249,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the third quarter valued at $5,010,000. Conway Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Wingstop in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,544,000. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Wingstop by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 465,368 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $193,630,000 after purchasing an additional 134,802 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on WING shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $450.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Northcoast Research raised shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $468.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Benchmark upgraded Wingstop from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.74.

Insider Transactions at Wingstop

In other news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 266 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $86,285.08. The trade was a 50.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wingstop Stock Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ WING opened at $274.80 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.03 billion, a PE ratio of 80.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.81. Wingstop Inc. has a 12-month low of $265.59 and a 12-month high of $433.86. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $310.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $357.70.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $162.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $160.24 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 17.05% and a negative return on equity of 22.69%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.69 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Wingstop Inc. will post 3.67 EPS for the current year.

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.49%.

Wingstop announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the restaurant operator to purchase up to 5.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.