AQR Capital Management LLC Buys 130,248 Shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 66.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 325,920 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 130,248 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 1.11% of Wingstop worth $137,753,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WING. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Wingstop by 3.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,924,326 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,071,473,000 after purchasing an additional 104,780 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Wingstop by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,273,542 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $833,026,000 after buying an additional 101,917 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Wingstop by 36.6% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 602,990 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $254,860,000 after buying an additional 161,600 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Wingstop by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 600,905 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $253,979,000 after buying an additional 16,526 shares during the period. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 11.1% during the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 340,400 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $124,723,000 after buying an additional 34,000 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wingstop

In related news, SVP Donnie Upshaw sold 3,199 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.71, for a total value of $1,192,299.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 97 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,152.87. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WING shares. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $418.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Wingstop from $407.00 to $423.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $475.00 price objective on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Wingstop from $345.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Wingstop from $353.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $379.53.

Wingstop Stock Performance

WING opened at $426.46 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $12.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 151.77, a PEG ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.71. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $385.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $383.01. Wingstop Inc. has a twelve month low of $170.83 and a twelve month high of $433.86.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.11. Wingstop had a net margin of 17.33% and a negative return on equity of 21.18%. The firm had revenue of $155.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $146.04 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 45.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Wingstop Inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. This is a boost from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.43%.

Wingstop 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.