Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) Short Interest Down 14.2% in February

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,630,000 shares, a drop of 14.2% from the January 31st total of 1,900,000 shares. Currently, 5.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 662,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 266 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was 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 approximately $86,285.08. This trade represents a 50.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wingstop

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vise Technologies Inc. boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 57.1% during the fourth quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 949 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $270,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 87,502 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $24,868,000 after purchasing an additional 11,577 shares in the last quarter. Twinbeech Capital LP boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 130.5% during the fourth quarter. Twinbeech Capital LP now owns 36,202 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,289,000 after purchasing an additional 20,493 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 795 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $226,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teza Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 29.9% in the 4th quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC now owns 3,075 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $874,000 after acquiring an additional 707 shares in the last quarter.

Wingstop Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ WING opened at $230.60 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $280.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $332.94. The company has a market capitalization of $6.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.16, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.81. Wingstop has a 1-year low of $218.23 and a 1-year high of $433.86.

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 29.11%.

Wingstop announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, December 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to purchase up to 5.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WING has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Wingstop from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Benchmark decreased their target price on Wingstop from $340.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. TD Securities decreased their target price on Wingstop from $365.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $330.00 target price (down previously from $375.00) on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $357.67.

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.