Wingstop (WING) Stock Down 4% On Preliminary Q4 Results

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) announced preliminary fourth-quarter fiscal 2019 unaudited sales and unit development results. Following the news, shares of the company declined 4.1% on Jan 16. In fact, the stock has lost 8.7% in the past six months compared with the industry’s decline of 2%.

Preliminary Q4 Results

The company anticipates fourth-quarter system-wide sales of approximately $397.2 million, up 21.2%. Domestic same-store sales are likely to have increased 12.2% in the quarter. Wingstop expects company-owned restaurant same-store sales to grow 8.9%.

The company opened 45 net new restaurants in the fiscal fourth quarter. As of Dec 28, 2019, the company operated 1,385 Wingstop restaurants, system-wide, which includes 1,231 restaurants in the United States, of which 1,200 were franchised and 31 were company-owned. Wingstop operates 154 international franchised restaurants across nine countries.

Chairman and chief executive officer of Wingstop Charlie Morrison said, “2019 was a significant year for Wingstop as we invested in both our business and our talent to lay the foundation for sustainable growth, while delivering industry leading 11.1% same store sales growth and 10.6% net new unit growth.”

The company also said that it invested $1.6 million in a consulting project to support its initiatives. Wingstop also incurred $0.5 million as a one-time bonus and $0.6 million of severance charges.

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company continues to witness robust digital sales growth. In fourth-quarter fiscal 2019, digital sales are likely to increase 39%.

Stocks to Consider

Better-ranked stocks worth considering in the same space include Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) , Domino's Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) and Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DNKN) . All stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Chipotle Mexican Grill reported trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 16.1%, on average.

Domino's Pizza and Dunkin' Brands Group have an impressive long-term earnings growth rate of 13.7% and 10.9%, respectively.

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