Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Sep 25, 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
1.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
24.4
P / E (ttm)
$2.7B
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, going concern, valuation). 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 1.9, placing it in the Grey zone. 2 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 by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. A cash-flow measure on the same base agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 9% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 24.9%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average.
241% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $254M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 241% of free cash flow. That is $149M (141%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. The balance sheet covered it: cash fell $119M and total debt rose $3M over FY2025 — $122M of the $149M, with the rest met from lines this read does not cover. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, 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%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$696.9M
Revenue Growth YoY+11.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+23.2%
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?