Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Purchases 36,232 Shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) by 507.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 43,378 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 36,232 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned approximately 0.15% of Wingstop worth $12,328,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nicholas Company Inc. bought a new stake in Wingstop during the fourth quarter worth about $10,572,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its position in shares of Wingstop by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 1,576 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $448,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Wingstop by 62.5% during the fourth quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 91 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Wingstop by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,650 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $469,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of Wingstop by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 57,600 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $16,370,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WING has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Wingstop from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Wingstop from $335.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Wingstop in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Northcoast Research lowered shares of Wingstop from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $330.00 price objective (down from $375.00) on shares of Wingstop in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $357.67.

Wingstop Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WING opened at $215.46 on Friday. Wingstop Inc. has a 52 week low of $205.60 and a 52 week high of $433.86. The company has a market capitalization of $6.18 billion, a PE ratio of 58.08, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.88. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $262.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $318.12.

Wingstop declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, December 5th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 5.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wingstop Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Wingstop’s payout ratio is 29.11%.

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.