Norges Bank Buys Shares of 373,411 Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING)

Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 373,411 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $106,123,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WING. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Wingstop by 521.4% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 87 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Wingstop by 62.5% in the 4th quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 91 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Wingstop in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Wingstop by 34.9% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 143 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Wingstop during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $71,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on WING. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Wingstop from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $280.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Wingstop from $330.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Wingstop from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $270.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday. Barclays decreased their price objective on Wingstop from $359.00 to $315.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Wingstop from $335.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $350.73.

Wingstop Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WING opened at $236.40 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $6.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.88. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $255.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $309.67. Wingstop Inc. has a 52-week low of $205.60 and a 52-week high of $433.86.

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

Wingstop Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Wingstop’s dividend payout ratio is 29.11%.

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.