Granite Investment Partners Nearly Liquidates $22 Million Wingstop (NASDAQ: WING) Stake: Should Investors Sell Too?

Granite Investment Partners, LLC cut its stake in Wingstop by 64,977 shares in the third quarter, reducing exposure by an estimated $22.28 million, SEC filings show.

What happened

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated November 10, 2025, Granite Investment Partners sold 64,977 shares of Wingstop (NASDAQ:WING) during the third quarter.

The transaction, estimated at $20.19 million based on Wingstop's quarterly average price, leaves the fund with 4,746 shares valued at $1.19 million as of September 30, 2025.

What else to know

Granite reduced its Wingstop holding to 0.07% of 13F assets under management following the sale.

Top holdings after the filing:

1. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT): $74.96 million (4.26% of AUM)
2. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL): $50.23 million (2.85% of AUM)
3. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL): $48.55 million (2.76% of AUM)
4. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA): $46.12 million (2.62% of AUM)
5. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN): $40.43 million (2.30% of AUM)

As of November 7, 2025, shares were priced at $238.18, down 28% over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500 by 38 percentage points.

Company overview

Company snapshot

Wingstop:

• Offers cooked-to-order classic wings, boneless wings, and tenders, with a variety of proprietary sauces and flavors, primarily under the Wingstop brand.
• Generates revenue through a predominantly franchised restaurant model, collecting franchise royalties, advertising fees, and sales from company-owned locations.
• Targets quick-service and fast-casual dining consumers, with a focus on both dine-in and off-premise customers across the United States and select international markets.

Wingstop franchises and operates restaurants specializing in chicken wings and related menu offerings.

The company operates through a franchised business model.

Foolish take

Sometimes it is hard to decipher the reasoning behind why firms like Granite make transaction decisions, and this is one of those odd ones.

Just two quarters after opening a starter position in Wingstop, and one quarter after quintupling its position size while the stock traded around $330, Granite sold almost all of its Wingstop stock at $252 per share.

I'm not sure what the reasoning for this may be, but from a Foolish perspective, I think Wingstop is a much better buy-and-hold investment.

Since debuting on the public markets 10 years ago, Wingstop has been a 10-bagger, more than tripling the S&P 500's total returns over that time. These results occur despite the company's recent 44% drop from its all-time high.

Contrary to what this share price decline might imply, Wingstop is far from a broken business. While same-store sales (SSS) have declined for two straight quarters now -- after rising for 84 consecutive quarters -- Wingstop still delivered 8% revenue growth in the third quarter.

Investors shouldn't panic over these disappointing SSS figures, as it has been a brutal environment for most fast-casual food chains. This is without mentioning that Wingstop was lapping 21% SSS growth in Q3 of last year.

Despite being home to nearly 3,000 stores, Wingstop believes it can reach over 10,000 stores over the long haul. This remaining expansion potential, paired with Wingstop's longstanding track record of improving each store's sales over time as they mature, has me optimistic that the best is yet to come.

Though Wingstop is an elite compounder in my opinion, it trades at a lofty 60 times forward earnings, so investors may want to buy shares in small quantities over time to get a wide array of starting price points.

Glossary

Stake: The ownership interest or amount of shares held in a company by an investor.
13F assets under management (AUM): The total value of securities reported by institutional investment managers in quarterly SEC Form 13F filings.
Reportable 13F assets: Securities that institutional investment managers must disclose in their quarterly 13F filings with the SEC.
Assets under management (AUM): The total market value of investments managed on behalf of clients by a fund or investment firm.
Top holdings: The largest investments in a fund's portfolio, typically ranked by market value.
Franchised restaurant model: A business structure where individual owners operate restaurants under the company's brand and guidelines, paying fees and royalties.
Royalties: Ongoing payments made by franchisees to the franchisor, usually based on a percentage of sales.
Advertising fees: Payments from franchisees to the franchisor to fund collective marketing and advertising efforts.
Quick-service: A restaurant format focused on fast food preparation and minimal table service, often called fast food.
Fast-casual: A restaurant category offering higher-quality food than fast food, with limited table service and moderate prices.
Off-premise customers: Customers who order food for takeout, delivery, or drive-thru instead of dining inside the restaurant.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in Alphabet, Nvidia, and Wingstop. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Wingstop and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.