Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Wingstop Inc. $WING

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 64.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,502 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,367 shares during the quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $1,179,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WING. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 93.9% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 128 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 106.9% during the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 149 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 121.4% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 217 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Wingstop by 280.3% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in Wingstop by 22.3% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 181 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WING has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BTIG Research raised their target price on shares of Wingstop from $350.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Wingstop from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on shares of Wingstop in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. They set an “overweight” rating for the company. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded Wingstop from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $420.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, August 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.52.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wingstop news, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.34, for a total value of $1,666,530.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 42,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,842,034.18. The trade was a 9.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Marisa Carona sold 11,938 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 transaction of $4,421,118.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,838 shares of company stock valued at $8,118,535. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Wingstop Price Performance

Shares of Wingstop stock opened at $255.87 on Friday. Wingstop Inc. has a 1 year low of $204.00 and a 1 year high of $433.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $317.82 and its 200 day moving average is $293.92. The stock has a market cap of $7.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.65, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.87.

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

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. This is a positive change from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.00%.

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.