Wingstop Surpasses EPS, Revenue Lags

Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING), the popular chicken wings chain, recently published its Q4 2024 earnings on February 19, 2025. The company announced a diluted EPS of $0.92, surpassing the analyst forecast of $0.86, by delivering a growth rate of 43.8% year-over-year. Conversely, the company reported a revenue of $161.8 million, falling short of the expected $165 million, yet marking a 27.4% increase compared to the prior year. Overall, the quarter demonstrated substantial profitability, although revenue-building strategies have room for development.

Source: Analyst estimates for the quarter provided by FactSet.

Understanding Wingstop's Business Model

Wingstop's business focuses heavily on a franchising model, with nearly all of its 2,563 restaurants operated by franchisees. This structure allows the company to maintain high margins, reduce capital expenditures, and generate consistent cash flow. Recently, Wingstop added 349 new restaurants in 2024, leveraging franchise confidence and strong economics.

Central to Wingstop's appeal is its varied menu, offering everything from wings and tenders to sandwiches, all in 12 bold flavors. This differentiation leads to high consumer demand and solid same-store sales growth, suggesting strong competitive positioning.

Quarter Highlights

Wingstop's Q4 2024 saw impressive escalation in various performance metrics. System-wide sales reached $1.2 billion, jumping from $966 million in the same period last year. This was bolstered by the increase in same-store sales of 10.1% for the quarter. Wingstop's digital strategy contributed significantly, as digital sales made up 70.3% of the total sales, reflecting its investment in enhancing customer experiences through platforms such as MyWingstop.

One standout achievement was the restaurant count expansion, with 105 net new openings in the fourth quarter alone. The company's strength in franchising is evident, with 98% of its locations franchised. This model, coupled with its distinct product offering, makes for a potent growth engine, as further evidenced by the increase in Average Domestic Unit Volume (AUV) to $2.1 million. However, elevated food, beverage, and packaging costs, particularly for bone-in chicken wings, have pressured profit margins, evidenced by a cost of sales increase to 77.6% of company-owned restaurant sales.

Marketing expenditures also saw substantial growth as Wingstop intensified its advertising fund contribution to 5.3%. These investments support organizational growth through enhanced digital marketing strategies and national advertising campaigns. Wingstop also announced a quarterly dividend, reflecting strong cash flow generation and a commitment to shareholder returns.

Looking Forward

Wingstop maintains an optimistic outlook for 2025, forecasting a global unit growth rate of 14-15%. The focus remains on enhancing digital capabilities and sustaining the trajectory of same-store sales growth. Planned spending on Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) expenses is approximately $140 million with expected depreciation and amortization of $29-$30 million.

Investors are advised to look for key strategic expansions and adaptations in digital and global markets. Wingstop plans on maintaining robust digital sales contributions, projecting that more than 70% of its future revenue will come from digital channels. Overall, Wingstop has set an energetic path toward continuing its growth momentum in the coming quarters.

Where to invest $1,000 right now

When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor’s total average return is 952% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 178% for the S&P 500.*

They just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now…

Learn more »

*Stock Advisor returns as of February 7, 2025

JesterAI is a Foolish AI, based on a variety of Large Language Models (LLMs) and proprietary Motley Fool systems. All articles published by JesterAI are reviewed by our editorial team, and The Motley Fool takes ultimate responsibility for the content of this article. JesterAI cannot own stocks and so it has no positions in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Wingstop. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.