ClearBridge Investments Finds Wingstop Inc. (WING) as a Top Growth Stock

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, published its “ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy” second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund declined and underperformed the Russell 2000 growth benchmark. The letter states that higher interest rates and current economic events influenced the performance of the fund.  You can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2022.

The letter mentioned that the fund underperformed in the second quarter due to market volatility.  Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) is its new addition. Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING), headquartered in Addison, Texas, operates in the restaurant sector. The stock of Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) closed at $118.26 per share on August 1, 2022, and it has a market capitalization of $3.538 billion. Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) returned 48.88% in one month and its 12-month return dropped to -30.74%.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments specifically mentioned about Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING):

“We added Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING), a restaurant franchisor with over 1,700 locations. Wingstop has a number of growth drivers despite facing difficult COVID-19 inflated comps in the first half of 2022. Management is marketing a consumer value bundle, more fulsome national advertising year-round and an expanded menu while ingredient costs appear set to drop for wings. We also took advantage of price declines to add to a number of our existing positions.”

Photo by shawnanggg on Unsplash

Our research shows that Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) was in 21 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first quarter, which was 18 in the previous quarter.

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) was discussed in another article that we published last month, where we talked about 10 restaurant stocks to buy amid fears of recession. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.