Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Boosts Stock Position in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its stake in Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 15.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,823 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 4,079 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp owned 0.10% of Wingstop worth $12,605,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Wingstop by 235.2% during the 4th quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,825 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,777,000 after purchasing an additional 7,596 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new stake in Wingstop during the 1st quarter valued at $1,355,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Wingstop by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 279,938 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $71,827,000 after purchasing an additional 36,017 shares during the last quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE purchased a new stake in Wingstop during the 4th quarter valued at $11,006,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Wingstop during the 4th quarter valued at $807,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on WING. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Wingstop from $345.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Wingstop from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Wingstop from $407.00 to $458.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Wingstop from $420.00 to $460.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Raymond James raised Wingstop from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wingstop currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $378.65.

Insider Activity at Wingstop

In related news, SVP Donnie Upshaw sold 3,199 shares of Wingstop stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.71, for a total transaction of $1,192,299.29. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 97 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,152.87. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wingstop Stock Performance

WING opened at $364.91 on Tuesday. Wingstop Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.38 and a fifty-two week high of $431.03. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $381.49 and its 200 day moving average is $378.35. The stock has a market cap of $10.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 1.71.

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The restaurant operator reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.11. Wingstop had a net margin of 17.33% and a negative return on equity of 21.18%. The company had revenue of $155.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $146.04 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. Wingstop’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Wingstop Inc. will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Wingstop Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a boost from Wingstop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 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.