Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) Raised to Buy at Northcoast Research

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) was upgraded by investment analysts at Northcoast Research from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $300.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock. Northcoast Research’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 22.65% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Wingstop from $296.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Westpark Capital raised shares of Wingstop to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Wingstop in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Wingstop from $415.00 to $365.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $335.96.

Wingstop Trading Down 3.3%

Wingstop stock opened at $244.60 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $261.79 and a 200-day moving average of $300.35. The firm has a market cap of $6.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.84, a P/E/G ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.73. Wingstop has a 1-year low of $204.00 and a 1-year high of $388.14.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $175.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.10 million. Wingstop had a negative return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 25.51%.Wingstop’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Wingstop will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wingstop

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WING. Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Wingstop by 2.2% in the second quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,371 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $462,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Wingstop by 16.8% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 223 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its position in Wingstop by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 1,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $389,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in Wingstop by 22.3% in 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 during the period. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Wingstop by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 6,569 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,212,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter.

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.