Morgan Stanley Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING)

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by analysts at Morgan Stanley in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $367.00 target price on the restaurant operator’s stock, up from their previous target price of $350.00. Morgan Stanley’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 15.53% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Wingstop from $360.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $440.00 price target on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. Citigroup lowered Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Melius assumed coverage on Wingstop in a report on Monday. They set a “hold” rating and a $350.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Wingstop from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.40.

Wingstop Price Performance

WING stock opened at $317.66 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $8.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 1.84. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $334.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $282.07. Wingstop has a one year low of $204.00 and a one year high of $433.86.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $171.09 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.25 million. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 18.85% and a net margin of 26.45%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Wingstop will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Raj Kapoor sold 637 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.07, for a total value of $173,945.59. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 517 shares in the company, valued at $141,177.19. This represents a 55.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michael Skipworth sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.34, for a total transaction of $3,373,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 47,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,919,074.60. This represents a 17.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WING. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Wingstop by 16.8% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 223 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $75,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital raised its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 2.9% during the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 1,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $389,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Wingstop by 22.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Wingstop by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 6,569 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,212,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 795 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $226,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period.

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.