US Bancorp DE Reduces Stock Holdings in Wingstop Inc. $WING

US Bancorp DE lowered its stake in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 21.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,394 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,489 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Wingstop were worth $1,816,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WING. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of Wingstop by 106.9% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 149 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Wingstop in the second quarter worth about $43,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position 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 in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in Wingstop by 22.3% during the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 181 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new position in shares of Wingstop during the first quarter valued at approximately $70,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WING. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Wingstop from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, September 13th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Wingstop from $430.00 to $420.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 18th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Wingstop from $296.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Wingstop from $335.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, William Blair started coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Wingstop currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.35.

Insider Activity at Wingstop

In other news, CFO Alex Kaleida sold 5,400 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.09, for a total value of $2,030,886.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 8,362 shares in the company, valued at $3,144,864.58. This trade represents a 39.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Marisa Carona sold 11,938 shares of Wingstop 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,838 shares of company stock worth $8,118,535. 0.72% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wingstop Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of WING opened at $250.30 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $6.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.78. Wingstop Inc. has a twelve month low of $204.00 and a twelve month high of $395.42. The company has a 50 day moving average of $289.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $298.20.

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

Wingstop Increases Dividend

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

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.