Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) Shares Bought by Man Group plc

Man Group plc grew its stake in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 33.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 387,956 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 97,855 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $110,257,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the 4th quarter valued at $1,102,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Wingstop by 85.8% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 233,219 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $66,281,000 after acquiring an additional 107,695 shares during the last quarter. J. Goldman & Co LP lifted its position in shares of Wingstop by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. J. Goldman & Co LP now owns 3,461 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $984,000 after acquiring an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Wingstop by 95.2% during the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 359,304 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $102,114,000 after acquiring an additional 175,236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 17,880 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,079,000 after purchasing an additional 812 shares in the last quarter.

Wingstop Price Performance

Wingstop stock opened at $286.30 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.17, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.80. Wingstop Inc. has a one year low of $204.00 and a one year high of $433.86. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $233.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $275.45.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.15. Wingstop had a net margin of 17.37% and a negative return on equity of 21.59%. The company had revenue of $171.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $172.25 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wingstop

In other Wingstop news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 637 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.07, for a total transaction of $173,945.59. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 517 shares in the company, valued at $141,177.19. This represents a 55.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WING has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Wingstop from $375.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Wingstop from $335.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Wingstop to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Wingstop from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $270.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Benchmark dropped their price target on shares of Wingstop from $340.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $322.09.

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.