Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 920 Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 920 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $236,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WING. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Wingstop by 93.6% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 12,570 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,225,000 after buying an additional 6,077 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Wingstop by 3.9% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 9,336 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,679,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. Ziegler Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Wingstop by 21.4% in the third quarter. Ziegler Capital Management LLC now owns 2,700 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $486,000 after acquiring an additional 476 shares during the period. BTC Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Wingstop by 20.8% in the 3rd quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,427 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $257,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 462,173 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $83,117,000 after purchasing an additional 53,688 shares during the period.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wingstop

In other news, Director Kilandigalu Madati sold 1,472 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $339.87, for a total transaction of $500,288.64. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,291.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Wingstop news, Director Kilandigalu Madati sold 1,472 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.87, for a total value of $500,288.64. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,291.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 10,843 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.40, for a total transaction of $3,658,428.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 17,107 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,771,901.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,901 shares of company stock worth $5,120,605 in the last three months. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on WING shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Wingstop from $280.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $340.00 target price on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Wingstop from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Wingstop from $235.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Tuesday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $290.83.

Wingstop Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ WING opened at $364.73 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $351.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $278.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 155.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.27 and a beta of 1.68. Wingstop Inc. has a 52 week low of $150.08 and a 52 week high of $379.00.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The restaurant operator reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $127.06 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $120.47 million. Wingstop had a net margin of 15.25% and a negative return on equity of 17.66%. Wingstop’s quarterly revenue was up 21.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Wingstop Inc. will post 3.01 EPS for the current year.

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.45%.

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.