Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Aug 11, 2026
Wingstop Inc. (WING)
A forensic read on Wingstop Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
27.3
P / E (ttm)
$3.2B
Market cap
0.80%
Dividend yield
11.4%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Wingstop Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.3, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+24.9%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +24.9% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. This is the fifth straight fiscal year of building accruals — an even longer streak than the 3-year mark that already signals a materially stronger tell. The cash-flow cross-check agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 9% of net operating assets.
241% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $254M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 241% of free cash flow. More than free cash flow generated — and beyond operating cash too, so the extra is coming from debt or cash reserves, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $25M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 264%.
-95%
FY2016→FY2017
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~95% in FY2017 (from FY2016) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$696.9M
Revenue Growth YoY+11.4%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+25.0%
Net Margin25.0%
Free Cash Flow$105.6M
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Wingstop Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?