Geode Capital Management LLC Sells 10,165 Shares of Wingstop Inc. $WING

Geode Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 616,062 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 10,165 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $212,030,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WING. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the 1st quarter valued at about $212,672,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Wingstop by 43.2% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,646,934 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $371,517,000 after purchasing an additional 496,717 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in Wingstop by 130.7% during the first quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 631,989 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $142,564,000 after purchasing an additional 358,044 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 64.4% during the first 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, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Wingstop in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,393,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on WING. Wall Street Zen lowered Wingstop from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Wingstop from $375.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Wingstop from $345.00 to $280.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $325.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $335.96.

Wingstop Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ WING opened at $227.29 on Tuesday. Wingstop Inc. has a 12-month low of $204.00 and a 12-month high of $388.14. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $250.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $301.70. The company has a market cap of $6.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.73.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.18. Wingstop had a net margin of 25.51% and a negative return on equity of 16.17%. The firm had revenue of $175.74 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.10 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Wingstop Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Friday, November 21st will be given a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 21st. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 19.54%.

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.