Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) stock jumped Wednesday after the chicken-wing chain topped profit expectations despite a slight revenue miss.

The stock jumped more than 12% Wednesday amid heavy trading, as short interest, already elevated at over 17% of the tradable float, likely fueled intensified buying pressure.

Quarterly Metrics

The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1, beating the analyst consensus estimate of 84 cents. Quarterly sales of $175.69 million missed the Street view of $177.533 million.

Wingstop posted system-wide sales of $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 9.3% from 2024.

The company opened 124 net new restaurants and reported a domestic restaurant AUV of $2.0 million.

Domestic same-store sales fell 5.8% versus the prior year. Digital orders accounted for 73.2% of system-wide sales.

Operating income was $46.835 million, compared with $41.840 million a year ago.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 9.8% to $61.878 million from $56.348 million a year ago.

As of December 27, Wingstop had 3,056 restaurants system-wide, including 2,586 in the U.S. and 470 in international markets and U.S. territories.

Of the U.S. locations, 2,529 were franchised, and 57 were company-owned, while all international units were franchised.

Wingstop exited the quarter with cash and equivalents worth $196.572 million.

Dividend

On February 17, the firm declared a quarterly dividend of 30 cents per share of common stock, resulting in a total dividend of approximately $8.3 million. This dividend will be paid on March 27, 2026.

Outlook

Wingstop expects flat to low-single-digit domestic same-store sales growth in fiscal 2026.

It forecasts global unit growth of 15% to 16%.

SG&A is projected at $151 million to $154 million, including $3 million in restructuring charges tied to a corporate realignment.

The company sees stock-based compensation expense of about $32 million and net interest expense of about $43 million.

Depreciation and amortization is expected to be around $30 million.

Elevated Short Interest

The company has a short float of approximately 3.66 million shares, representing 17.33% of its publicly traded float, indicating a relatively high level of short interest among investors betting against the stock.

Notably, session volume reached about 1.90 million shares, well above the 100-day average volume of roughly 724,785 shares, signaling heightened trading activity.

WING Price Action: Wingstop shares were up 12.37% at $282.92 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Photo by Piotr Swat via Shutterstock