At a glance
Wingstop Inc is worth $3.75B, about 22 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 11.4% to $696.9M in fiscal 2025, with 25.0% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 22.9% a year. It pays a 0.89% dividend yield, raised every year for at least 7 years, and returned $909.2M to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned −43.6% over the past year with dividends reinvested and −2.7% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 50.8% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 58.4% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high within a month and 6 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
Wingstop Inc. calls itself the world's largest fast casual chain focused on chicken wings. Its annual report for the year ended Dec. 27, 2025 lists more than 3,050 locations. The menu is classic and boneless wings, tenders and chicken sandwiches, cooked to order and tossed in 12 flavors.
Wingstop is mainly a franchisor. Independent owners, called franchisees, ran about 98% of its restaurants at the end of fiscal 2025, and they pay Wingstop fees to use the brand. U.S. franchisees pay a royalty, an ongoing fee, of 6.0% of sales. They also pay 5.5% into a not-for-profit fund for national advertising. Of $696.9 million in fiscal 2025 revenue, royalties, franchise fees and other income made up about 46%. Advertising fees made up about 36%, and sales at restaurants Wingstop runs itself about 18%.
Wingstop reports one business segment. At the end of fiscal 2025, its 186 U.S. franchisees owned about 14 restaurants each on average. Abroad, master franchisees hold the rights to whole countries or regions. They ran all 470 international restaurants in 18 countries and U.S. territories, after a net gain of 111 during the year. Digital orders make up more than 60% of sales. Wingstop sees room for more than 6,000 U.S. and 4,000 international restaurants, a target it may not reach.
Price history
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WING -43.6% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Royalty revenue, franchise fees and other | $321.8M | 46.2% |
| Advertising fees | $247.6M | 35.5% |
| Company-owned restaurant sales | $127.5M | 18.3% |
| Franchise fees | $6.5M | 0.9% |
Latest results
- In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 26, 2026), revenue was $185.1M, up 5.3% from a year earlier, and net income was $29.1M (+2.2%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $696.9M (+11.4% year over year; +22.9% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 25% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +22.9% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 25.7% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 15.2% good |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 25.1% good |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $-1.01B weak |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $248.8M | $23.3M | $59.5M |
| FY2021 | $282.5M | $42.7M | $20.9M |
| FY2022 | $357.5M | $52.9M | $52.3M |
| FY2023 | $460.1M | $70.2M | $80.8M |
| FY2024 | $625.8M | $108.7M | $105.7M |
| FY2025 | $696.9M | $174.3M | $105.6M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $3.75B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 22.3 |
| Dividend yield | 0.89% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Wingstop’s market value went from $850.6M at the end of 2016 to $3.75B on Oct 28, 2026, about 4.4 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is down 43%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $3.75B | -43.4% |
| 2025 | $6.63B | -20.2% |
| 2024 | $8.30B | +10.0% |
| 2023 | $7.55B | +83.3% |
| 2022 | $4.12B | -20.1% |
| 2021 | $5.15B | +31.0% |
| 2020 | $3.93B | +54.9% |
| 2019 | $2.54B | +35.1% |
| 2018 | $1.88B | +65.8% |
| 2017 | $1.13B | +33.3% |
| 2016 | $850.6M |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WING price data to Oct 28, 2026 | -41.5% | -43.6% | -7.6% | -2.7% | +20.8% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | -41.5% |
| 2025 | -15.7% |
| 2024 | +11.1% |
| 2023 | +87.3% |
| 2022 | -17.0% |
| 2021 | +30.9% |
| 2020 | +60.3% |
| 2019 | +35.0% |
| 2018 | +86.2% |
| 2017 | +32.3% |
| 2016 | +44.4% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Before this security existed |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 36.4% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 50.8%, back to its old high 0.9 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 25.5% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 58.4%, back to its old high 5.6 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-11-03 to 2026-11-03 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 4 sales ($700K).
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2, 2026 | Raj Kapoor SVP, Chief Operating Officer | sell | $409K |
| Oct 30, 2026 | Wesley S Mcdonald Director | sell | $221K |
| Mar 10, 2026 | Christopher Fallon SVP, Chief Information Officer | sell | $39K |
| May 12, 2026 | Christopher Fallon Former SVP & CIO | sell | $31K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| FMR LLC | 14.2% | Apr 30, 2026 |
| BlackRock, Inc. | 9.6% | Mar 31, 2025 |
| Darsana Capital Partners LP | 5.5% | May 5, 2026 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 5.3% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| Massachusetts Financial Services Company | 4.8% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| American Century Investment Management, Inc. | 4.1% | Dec 31, 2025 |
| T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. | 0.5% | Jun 30, 2026 |
ETFs with the most weight in WING
| TOGA Tremblant Global ETF | 3.3% |
| TXS Texas Capital Texas Equity Index ETF | 1.72% |
| SURE AdvisorShares Insider Advantage ETF | 1.13% |
| RFG Invesco S&P MidCap 400® Pure Growth ETF | 1.09% |
| QMID WisdomTree U.S. MidCap Quality Growth Fund | 0.71% |
| TMFM Motley Fool Mid-Cap Growth ETF | 0.69% |
| MDYG SPDR S&P 400 Mid Cap Growth ETF | 0.54% |
| IJK iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF | 0.53% |
What could go wrong
- Nearly everything depends on franchisees. Franchisees ran about 98% of restaurants at the end of fiscal 2025, so royalties depend on their performance. Wingstop's control is limited, and a big franchisee failing or not paying could hurt revenue.
- Growth relies on franchisees funding new restaurants. Franchisees pay for nearly all new restaurants, and Wingstop does not lend to them. If loans get harder to find or good sites are scarce, openings could slow. Growth would then depend on existing restaurants.
- Chicken prices drive costs. Chicken made up about 57.2% of all purchases in fiscal 2025. When chicken prices rise, profits at company-owned restaurants and at franchisees can shrink, which can hurt results.
- One distributor supplies every U.S. restaurant. All food and packaging for U.S. restaurants comes through a single distributor using 23 distribution centers. A disruption there, or at approved chicken suppliers, could leave restaurants short of product.
- Heavy debt with strict terms. On Sept. 26, 2026, Wingstop owed about $1.21 billion and held $198 million in cash and investments. Its securitized debt, backed by assets and cash flows, has strict terms; breaking them could cause a default.
- Reliance on digital orders and delivery. Wingstop says digital sales stay above 60%. Outages in its own platform, limits on distributing its apps, cyberattacks or poor service from third-party delivery partners could cost sales and hurt the brand.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released; Other company announcement
- Executive or board change
- Executive or board change
- Quarterly results released; Other company announcement
- Bylaws or fiscal year changed; Shareholder vote results
- Quarterly results released; Other company announcement
- Other company announcement
- Quarterly results released; Other company announcement
- Executive or board change
- Quarterly results released; Other company announcement
For income and retirement investors
Wingstop's dividend is small, yielding 0.89% as of Oct. 28, 2026, so it offers little income. Excluding fiscal 2016 and 2020, which had one-time special dividends, regular dividends per share rose every year from fiscal 2017 through fiscal 2025, a streak of 7 increases. The payout grew from $0.62 a share in fiscal 2021 to $1.14 in fiscal 2025. That year it used 18.6% of earnings and 30.7% of free cash flow (cash left after costs and investment). Share buybacks were larger: $661.9 million over fiscal 2021–2025, versus $247.3 million in dividends.
Downturns have hit the stock hard. It dropped about 51% in the 2020 COVID crash but regained its peak by April 14, 2020. In the 2022 bear market (a long, broad market slide), it fell about 58% and recovered by Nov. 10, 2022. Its deepest drop on record, 76.9%, came within the three years to Oct. 28, 2026. Single stocks carry more risk than diversified funds.
Questions investors ask
How does Wingstop make money?
Mostly by collecting fees from franchisees, the independent owners who ran about 98% of its restaurants as of Dec. 27, 2025, the end of fiscal 2025. Of that year's $696.9 million in revenue, royalties, franchise fees and other income made up about 46%. Advertising fees made up about 36%, and sales at company-owned restaurants about 18%. U.S. franchisees pay a 6.0% royalty on sales plus 5.5% to a national advertising fund. Operating margin (operating profit as a share of revenue) was 25.7%.
Does Wingstop raise its dividend every year?
Mostly yes. Fiscal 2016 and 2020 included one-time special dividends, so they are left out of the count. Apart from those years, Wingstop's regular dividend per share rose every year from fiscal 2017 through fiscal 2025, a streak of 7 increases. It grew from $0.62 in fiscal 2021 to $1.14 in fiscal 2025, about 16.4% a year. The fiscal 2025 dividend used 18.6% of earnings and 30.7% of free cash flow. Still, the yield was only 0.89% as of Oct. 28, 2026.
How much debt does Wingstop have?
About $1.21 billion as of Sept. 26, 2026, against roughly $198 million in cash and investments. Shareholder equity was about negative $773 million, meaning liabilities were larger than the company's $687 million of assets. Wingstop's annual report warns that its securitized debt (borrowing backed by specific assets or cash flows) has restrictive terms. Breaking them could cause a default. The report also flags the risk of not generating enough cash to meet its significant debt payments.
Is Wingstop still growing?
Yes, though growth has slowed. Revenue rose about 22.9% a year from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2025, and 11.4% in fiscal 2025 alone, to $696.9 million. Net income jumped 60.3% that year, to $174.3 million. In the quarter ended Sept. 26, 2026, revenue grew 5.3% from a year earlier, to $185.1 million, and net income rose 2.2%, to $29.1 million. Expansion also continued abroad, with a net gain of 111 international restaurants in fiscal 2025.
How much has Wingstop stock fallen?
A lot. As of Oct. 28, 2026, the shares were down 41.5% for the year to date and 43.6% over one year, even after a 36.1% gain in the prior month. Over five years they lost about 2.7% a year. Over 10 years they gained about 20.8% a year, or 561% in total. At that date's price, the price-to-earnings ratio was about 22.3. That means shares cost 22.3 times fiscal 2025 earnings per share of $6.21.