State of Michigan Retirement System Cuts Stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

State of Michigan Retirement System decreased its position in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 6,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $1,953,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WING. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 942.3% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 271 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $113,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 64.2% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 3,741 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,557,000 after buying an additional 1,462 shares during the period. Hollencrest Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Wingstop by 53.8% in the third quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 100 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in Wingstop by 9.6% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 8,980 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,736,000 after acquiring an additional 788 shares during the period. Finally, Bridges Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Wingstop in the third quarter worth $213,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WING has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Northcoast Research lowered shares of Wingstop from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Guggenheim raised shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $280.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Benchmark dropped their target price on shares of Wingstop from $340.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, TD Securities dropped their price objective on Wingstop from $365.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $357.67.

Insider Transactions at Wingstop

In other news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 266 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.38, for a total transaction of $86,285.08. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 266 shares in the company, valued at $86,285.08. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Wingstop Stock Performance

Shares of WING opened at $227.12 on Friday. Wingstop Inc. has a 1 year low of $209.61 and a 1 year high of $433.86. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $276.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $330.04. The company has a market capitalization of $6.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.22, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.88.

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.11%.

Wingstop declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, December 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to buy up to 5.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wingstop Company 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.