By Nicholas G. Miller
Wingstop reported lower fourth-quarter comparable U.S. sales and said it expects customers to remain strained in 2026.
Still, its quarterly results largely came in above Wall Street's expectations and shares jumped 15% to $289.
"We expect the consumer environment to remain choppy with continued pressure on our core consumer," said Chief Financial Officer Alex Kaleida in the company's earnings call.
Wingstop said in November it was continuing to struggle with a decline in spending from Hispanic and low-income consumers. Chief Executive Michael Skipworth said then that the dynamic was expanding to more geographies and to some middle-income consumers, saying the restaurant chain over-indexes "to this consumer that's under the most pressure."
But Kaleida said Wednesday he expects initiatives including a new loyalty program, faster service times and marketing would offset macroeconomic pressures and return Wingstop to comparable sales growth in 2026.
The company is banking on its new "Smart Kitchen" AI-powered technology that uses predictive order management to cut service times to under 10 minutes. Wingstop said locations that are delivering that speed are already seeing increased customer frequency.
Wingstop is also attracting more higher-income customers, particularly those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, the company said.
For the fourth quarter, the restaurant chain posted net income of $26.8 million, about even with the year prior. On a per-share basis, earnings rose to 96 cents from 92 cents the year before. Analysts polled by FactSet expected 83 cents a share.
Revenue rose to $175.7 million from $161.8 million. Wall Street expected $177.6 million.
Domestic same-store sales fell 5.8%. Wall Street expected a decline of 6.7%.
The company guided for 2026 domestic same-store sales growth of flat to low-single digits.
Write to Nicholas G. Miller at nicholas.miller@wsj.com.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 18, 2026 12:32 ET (17:32 GMT)
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