United Services Automobile Association Purchases New Position in Wingstop Inc. $WING

United Services Automobile Association purchased a new stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 1,913 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $429,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WING. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Wingstop in the 1st quarter valued at $212,672,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Wingstop by 43.2% in the 1st 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. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in Wingstop by 130.7% in the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 631,989 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $142,564,000 after purchasing an additional 358,044 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Wingstop by 64.4% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 550,879 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $123,295,000 after purchasing an additional 215,816 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC increased its holdings in Wingstop by 66.3% in 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 in the last quarter.

Wingstop Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WING opened at $280.65 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.87. Wingstop Inc. has a one year low of $204.00 and a one year high of $433.86. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $325.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $292.60.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $174.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.60 million. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 17.07% and a net margin of 25.61%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.93 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. This is a positive change from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 20.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Wingstop news, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total value of $1,666,530.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 42,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,842,034.18. This trade represents a 9.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Marisa Carona sold 11,938 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total transaction of $4,421,118.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 21,838 shares of company stock worth $8,118,535. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WING has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Wingstop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 10th. Truist Financial upgraded Wingstop from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $274.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Wingstop from $325.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Wingstop from $335.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Wingstop currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.52.

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.