Wingstop Inc. (WING)

CIK: 0001636222. SIC: 5812 Retail-Eating Places. Latest 10-K as of: 2026-02-18.

SIC breadcrumb: Retail Trade > Eating And Drinking Places > SIC 5812 Retail-Eating Places

SEC company page: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1636222. Latest filing source: 0001636222-26-000008.

Selected Fundamentals

Financials

Annual standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-02-18. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001636222.json. Derived margins are computed from the extracted annual SEC facts.

Flow metrics use full-year FY periods from 10-K/10-K/A filings; balance-sheet metrics use FY-end instants. Missing metrics are omitted rather than fabricated.

Financial Charts

Quarterly

Quarterly standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-04-29. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001636222.json.

Flow metrics use discrete quarter-length periods from 10-Q/10-Q/A filings. Q4 revenue and net income are derived only when annual FY and nine-month YTD facts exist for the same fiscal year; derived Q4 values are labeled. EPS Q4 is not derived.

Quarterly Charts

Macro Cross-References

• CPIAUCSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
• UNRATE - Unemployment Rate
• FEDFUNDS - Federal Funds Effective Rate
• CES0500000003 - Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private
• DFEDTARU - Federal Funds Target Range - Upper Limit
• DFEDTARL - Federal Funds Target Range - Lower Limit
• DGS3MO - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 3-Month Constant Maturity
• DGS2 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 2-Year Constant Maturity
• DGS10 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 10-Year Constant Maturity
• DGS30 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 30-Year Constant Maturity
• T10Y2Y - 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Minus 2-Year Treasury Constant Maturity
• CPILFESL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy
• CPIUFDSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food
• CPIENGSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Energy
• CUSR0000SAH1 - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Shelter
• PCEPI - Personal Consumption Expenditures: Chain-type Price Index
• PCEPILFE - Personal Consumption Expenditures Excluding Food and Energy: Chain-type Price Index
• PPIACO - Producer Price Index by Commodity: All Commodities
• T10YIE - 10-Year Breakeven Inflation Rate
• U6RATE - Total Unemployed, Plus All Marginally Attached Workers Plus Total Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons
• PAYEMS - All Employees, Total Nonfarm
• CIVPART - Labor Force Participation Rate
• EMRATIO - Employment-Population Ratio
• UNEMPLOY - Unemployed
• CE16OV - Employment Level
• ICSA - Initial Claims
• JTSJOL - Job Openings: Total Nonfarm
• JTSQUR - Quits: Total Nonfarm
• GDPC1 - Real Gross Domestic Product
• A191RL1Q225SBEA - Real Gross Domestic Product: Percent Change from Preceding Period
• INDPRO - Industrial Production: Total Index
• TCU - Capacity Utilization: Total Index
• HOUST - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Started: Total Units
• PERMIT - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places: Total Units
• RSAFS - Advance Retail Sales: Retail Trade
• PCE - Personal Consumption Expenditures
• DSPIC96 - Real Disposable Personal Income
• PSAVERT - Personal Saving Rate
• M2SL - M2
• BOPGSTB - U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: Balance
• MSPUS - Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States
• HSN1F - New One Family Houses Sold: United States
• RHORUSQ156N - Homeownership Rate in the United States
• TTLCONS - Total Construction Spending: Total Construction in the United States
• RRVRUSQ156N - Rental Vacancy Rate in the United States
• TOTALSL - Total Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
• REVOLSL - Revolving Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
• DRCCLACBS - Delinquency Rate on Credit Card Loans, All Commercial Banks
• GDP - Gross Domestic Product
• GPDI - Gross Private Domestic Investment
• GCE - Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment
• PCEC - Personal Consumption Expenditures
• NETEXP - Net Exports of Goods and Services
• GFDEBTN - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt
• GFDEGDQ188S - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product
• FYFSD - Federal Surplus or Deficit
• FGRECPT - Federal Government Current Receipts
• FGEXPND - Federal Government: Current Expenditures
• MANEMP - All Employees, Manufacturing
• USCONS - All Employees, Construction
• USTRADE - All Employees, Retail Trade
• USFIRE - All Employees, Financial Activities
• USGOVT - All Employees, Government
• AWHAETP - Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, Total Private
• DGORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Durable Goods
• NEWORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Nondefense Capital Goods Excluding Aircraft
• BUSINV - Total Business Inventories
• EXPGS - Exports of Goods and Services
• IMPGS - Imports of Goods and Services
• IR - Import Price Index (End Use): All Commodities
• PPIFIS - Producer Price Index by Commodity: Final Demand

Latest quarter (10-Q)

Latest 10-Q source: 0001636222-26-000017.

Extracted between Part I Item 2 and the next Item 3/4 or Part II heading after HTML sanitization. Confidence: high. Filing date: 2026-04-29. Report date: 2026-03-28.

Item 2.     Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion and analysis of the financial condition and results of operations of Wingstop Inc. (collectively with its direct and indirect subsidiaries on a consolidated basis, “Wingstop,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) should be read in conjunction with the accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements and related notes in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (this “Quarterly Report”) and with the audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 27, 2025 (our “Annual Report”). The statements in this discussion regarding industry outlook, our expectations regarding our future performance, liquidity and capital resources, and other non-historical statements are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the risks and uncertainties described in “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” below and “Risk Factors” beginning on page 11 of our Annual Report. Our actual results may differ materially from those contained in or implied by any forward-looking statements.

We operate on a 52- or 53-week fiscal year ending on the last Saturday of each calendar year. Our fiscal quarters are comprised of 13 weeks, with the exception of the fourth quarter of a 53-week year, which contains 14 weeks. Fiscal years 2026 and 2025 each contain 52 weeks.

Overview

Wingstop is the largest fast casual chicken wings-focused restaurant chain in the world, with over 3,150 locations worldwide. We are dedicated to serving the world flavor through an unparalleled guest experience and offering of classic wings, boneless wings, tenders, and chicken sandwiches, always cooked to order and hand-sauced-and-tossed in 12 bold, distinctive flavors.

The Company is primarily a franchisor, with approximately 98% of Wingstop’s restaurants currently owned and operated by independent franchisees. We believe our asset-light, highly-franchised business model generates strong operating margins and requires low capital expenditures, creating stockholder value through strong and consistent free cash flow and capital-efficient growth.

Highlights for the fiscal first quarter 2026 compared to the fiscal first quarter 2025:

•System-wide sales increased 5.9% to $1.4 billion;

•97 net new openings in the fiscal first quarter 2026;

•Domestic same store sales decreased 8.7%;

•Total revenue increased 7.4% to $183.7 million;

•Net income decreased 67.6% to $29.9 million, or $1.08 per diluted share;

•Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per diluted share, both non-GAAP measures, increased 14.7% to $32.5 million, or $1.18 per diluted share; and

•Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, increased 9.9% to $65.4 million.

14

Key Performance Indicators

Key measures that we use in evaluating our restaurants and assessing our business include the following:

Number of restaurants. Management reviews the number of new restaurants, the number of closed restaurants, and the number of acquisitions and divestitures of restaurants to assess net new restaurant growth.

Thirteen Weeks Ended

March 28,

2026

March 29,

2025

Domestic Franchised Activity:

Beginning of period

2,529 

2,154 

Openings

67 

96 

Closures

— 

— 

Restaurants end of period

2,596 

2,250 

Domestic Company-Owned Activity:

Beginning of period

57 

50 

Openings

— 

1 

Closures

— 

— 

Restaurants end of period

57 

51 

Total Domestic Restaurants

2,653 

2,301 

International Franchised Activity (1):

Beginning of period

470 

359 

Openings

33 

30 

Closures

(3)

(1)

Restaurants end of period

500 

388 

Total System-wide Restaurants

3,153 

2,689 

(1) Including U.S. territories.

System-wide sales. System-wide sales represents net sales for all of our company-owned and franchised restaurants, as reported by franchisees. This measure allows management to better assess changes in our royalty revenue, our overall store performance, the health of our brand, and the strength of our market position relative to competitors. Our system-wide sales growth is driven by new restaurant openings as well as increases in same store sales.

Domestic average unit volume (“AUV”). Domestic AUV consists of the average annual sales of all restaurants that have been open for a trailing 52-week period or longer. This measure is calculated by dividing sales during the applicable period for all restaurants being measured by the number of restaurants being measured. Domestic AUV includes revenue from both company-owned and franchised restaurants. Domestic AUV allows management to assess our domestic company-owned and franchised restaurant economics. Changes in domestic AUV growth are primarily driven by increases in same store sales and are also influenced by opening new restaurants.

Domestic same store sales. Domestic same store sales reflects the change in year-over-year sales for the same store restaurant base. We define the same store restaurant base to include those restaurants open for at least 52 full weeks. This measure highlights the performance of existing restaurants, while excluding the impact of new restaurant openings and permanent closures. We review same store sales for domestic company-owned restaurants as well as system-wide domestic restaurants. Domestic same store sales growth is driven by increases in transactions and average transaction size. Transaction size increases are driven by price increases or favorable mix shift from either an increase in items purchased or shifts into higher priced items.

 EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA. We define EBITDA as net income before interest expense, net, income tax expense (benefit), and depreciation and amortization. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income before interest expense, net, income tax

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expense (benefit), and depreciation and amortization, with further adjustments for losses on debt extinguishment and financing transactions, transaction costs, costs and fees associated with investments in our strategic initiatives, certain system implementation costs, gains and losses on non-recurring transactions, certain restructuring charges, and stock-based compensation expense. Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to differences in methods of calculation. For a reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA and for further discussion of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as non-GAAP measures and how we utilize them, see footnote 2 below.

Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Earnings Per Diluted Share. We define Adjusted net income as net income adjusted for losses on debt extinguishment and financing transactions, transaction costs, costs and fees associated with investments in our strategic initiatives, gains and losses on non-recurring transactions, certain system implementation costs, certain restructuring charges, and related tax adjustments that management believes are not indicative of the Company’s core operating results or business outlook over the long term. We define Adjusted earnings per diluted share as Adjusted net income divided by weighted average diluted share count. For a reconciliation of net income to Adjusted net income and for further discussion of Adjusted net income and Adjusted earnings per diluted share as non-GAAP measures and how we utilize them, see footnote 3 below.

The following table sets forth our key performance indicators for the thirteen weeks ended March 28, 2026 and March 29, 2025 (in thousands, except unit data):

Thirteen Weeks Ended

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

Number of system-wide restaurants open at end of period

3,153 

2,689 

System-wide sales (1)

$

1,376,669 

$

1,300,228 

Domestic restaurant AUV

$

1,956 

$

2,135 

Domestic same store sales growth

(8.7)

%

0.5 

%

Company-owned domestic same store sales growth

(2.2)

%

1.4 

%

Total revenue

$

183,725 

$

171,094 

Net income

$

29,883 

$

92,265 

Adjusted EBITDA (2)

$

65,403 

$

59,497 

Adjusted net income (3)

$

32,469 

$

28,316 

(1) The percentage of system-wide sales attributable to company-owned restaurants was 2.4% and 2.3% for the thirteen weeks ended March 28, 2026 and March 29, 2025, respectively. The remainder was generated by franchised restaurants, as reported by our franchisees.

(2) EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are supplemental measures of our performance that are not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net income or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP, or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity.

We caution investors that amounts presented in accordance with our definitions of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similar measures disclosed by our competitors, because not all companies and analysts calculate EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in the same manner. We present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because we consider them to be important supplemental measures of our performance and believe they are frequently used by securities analysts, investors, and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. Management believes that investors’ understanding of our performance is enhanced by including these non-GAAP financial measures as a reasonable basis for comparing our ongoing results of operations. Many investors are interested in understanding the performance of our business by comparing our results from ongoing operations on a period-over-period basis and would ordinarily add back non-cash expenses such as depreciation and amortization, as well as items that are not part of normal day-to-day operations of our business.

Management uses EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA:

•as a measurement of operating performance because we believe they assist us in comparing the operating performance of our restaurants on a consistent basis, as they remove the impact of items not directly resulting from our core operations;

16

•for planning purposes, including the preparation of our internal annual operating budget and financial projections;

•to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of our operational strategies;

•to evaluate our capacity to fund capital expenditures and expand our business; and

•to calculate incentive compensation payments for our employees, including assessing performance under our annual incentive compensation plan.

By providing these non-GAAP financial measures, together with a reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measure, we believe we are enhancing investors’ understanding of our business and our results of operations, as well as assisting investors in evaluating how well we are executing our strategic initiatives. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation, or as an alternative to, or a substitute for net income or other financial statement data presented in our consolidated financial statements as indicators of financial performance. Some of the limitations are:

•such measures do not reflect our cash expenditures or future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments;

•such measures do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

•such measures do not reflect the interest expense or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments on our debt;

•such measures do not reflect our tax expense or the cash requirements to pay our taxes;

•although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will often have to be replaced in the future and such measures do not reflect any cash requi

[Excerpt truncated for page length; source filing is linked above.]

Latest 10-K MD&A

Extracted between Item 7 and the next Item 7A/8 heading after HTML sanitization. Confidence: high. Filing date: 2026-02-18. Report date: 2025-12-27.

Item 7.

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (“MD&A”) should be read in conjunction with the accompanying audited consolidated financial statements and notes. Forward-looking statements in this MD&A are not guarantees of future performance and may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Refer to “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” elsewhere in this report and “Item 1A. Risk Factors” for a discussion of these risks and uncertainties.

A comparison of our results of operations and cash flows for fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023 can be found under “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2024, filed with the SEC on February 19, 2025.

We operate on a 52- or 53-week fiscal year ending on the last Saturday of each calendar year. Our fiscal quarters are comprised of 13 weeks, with the exception of the fourth quarter of a 53-week year, which contains 14 weeks. Fiscal years 2025, 2024 and 2023 each contain 52 weeks.

Overview

Wingstop is the largest fast casual chicken wings-focused restaurant chain in the world and has demonstrated strong, consistent growth. As of December 27, 2025, we had a total of 3,056 restaurants in our system. Our restaurant base is approximately 98% franchised, with 2,999 franchised locations (including 470 international locations) and 57 company-owned restaurants as of December 27, 2025. We generate revenues by charging royalties, advertising fees and franchise fees to our franchisees and by operating a number of our own restaurants.

We plan to grow our business by opening new franchised restaurants and increasing our same store sales, while leveraging our franchise model to create shareholder value. We have added over 1,000 net new units, representing a 56.0% increase in our system-wide footprint, and achieved system-wide sales growth of 95.1% since the beginning of fiscal year 2023. We believe our asset-light, highly-franchised business model generates strong operating margins and requires low capital expenditures, creating shareholder value through strong and consistent operating cash flow and capital-efficient growth.

Highlights for Fiscal Year 2025

•System-wide sales increased 12.1% over the prior fiscal year to approximately $5.3 billion;

•System-wide restaurant count increased 19.2% over the prior fiscal year to a total of 3,056 worldwide locations, driven by 493 net unit openings;

•Domestic same store sales decreased 3.3% over the prior fiscal year;

•Company-owned domestic same store sales increased 2.6% over the prior fiscal year;

•Digital sales increased to 73.2% of system-wide sales;

•Domestic AUV of $2.0 million;

•Total revenue increased 11.4% over the prior fiscal year to $696.9 million;

•Net income increased 60.3% over the prior fiscal year to $174.3 million, or $6.21 per diluted share, compared to $108.7 million, or $3.70 per diluted share in the prior fiscal year;

•Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per diluted share, both non-GAAP measures, were $114.5 million, or $4.08 per diluted share, compared to $110.3 million, or $3.75 per diluted share, in the prior fiscal year; and

•Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, increased 15.2% to $244.2 million, compared to $212.1 million in the prior fiscal year.

30

Key Performance Indicators

Key measures that we use in evaluating our restaurants and assessing our business include the following:

Number of restaurants. Management reviews the number of new restaurants, the number of closed restaurants, and the number of acquisitions and divestitures of restaurants to assess net new restaurant growth, system-wide sales, royalty and franchise fee revenue, and company-owned restaurant sales.

Domestic Company-owned

Domestic Franchised

International Franchised(1)

System-wide

Restaurant count at December 30, 2023

49 

1,877 

288 

2,214 

Openings

4 

274 

77 

355 

Closures

— 

— 

(6)

(6)

Net purchase from (sold by) franchisees

(3)

3 

— 

— 

Restaurant count at December 28, 2024

50 

2,154 

359 

2,563 

Openings

3 

384 

122 

509 

Closures

(1)

(4)

(11)

(16)

Net purchased from (sold by) franchisees

5 

(5)

— 

— 

Restaurant count at December 27, 2025

57 

2,529 

470 

3,056 

(1) Includes U.S. territories.

System-wide sales. System-wide sales represents net sales for all of our company-owned and franchised restaurants (as reported by franchisees). This measure allows management to better assess changes in our royalty revenue, our overall store performance, the health of our brand and the strength of our market position relative to competitors. Our system-wide sales growth is driven by new restaurant openings as well as increases in same store sales.

Domestic average unit volume (“AUV”). Domestic AUV consists of the average annual sales of all restaurants that have been open for a trailing 52-week period or longer. This measure is calculated by dividing sales during the applicable period for all restaurants being measured by the number of restaurants being measured. Domestic AUV includes revenue from both company-owned and franchised restaurants. Domestic AUV allows management to assess our domestic company-owned and franchised restaurant economics. Changes in domestic AUV are primarily driven by increases in same store sales and are also influenced by opening new restaurants.

Domestic same store sales. Domestic same store sales reflects the change in year-over-year sales for the same store base. We define the same store base to include those restaurants open for at least 52 full weeks. This measure highlights the performance of existing restaurants, while excluding the impact of new restaurant openings and permanent closures. We review same store sales for domestic company-owned restaurants as well as system-wide domestic restaurants. Domestic same store sales growth is driven by increases in transactions and average transaction size. Transaction size increases are driven by price increases or favorable mix shift from either an increase in items purchased or shifts into higher priced items.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA. We define EBITDA as net income before interest expense, net, income tax expense (benefit), and depreciation and amortization. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income before interest expense, net, income tax expense (benefit), and depreciation and amortization, with further adjustments for losses on debt extinguishment and financing transactions, transaction costs, costs and fees associated with investments in our strategic initiatives, system implementation costs, and stock-based compensation expense. For a reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA and for further discussion of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as non-GAAP measures and how we utilize them, see footnote 2 below.

31

The following table sets forth our key performance indicators for the fiscal years ended December 27, 2025 and December 28, 2024 (in thousands, except unit data):

Year ended

December 27, 2025

December 28, 2024

Number of system-wide restaurants at period end

3,056 

2,563 

System-wide sales(1)

$

5,343,089 

$

4,765,233 

Domestic AUV

$

2,000 

$

2,138 

Domestic same store sales growth

(3.3)

%

19.9 

%

Company-owned domestic same store sales growth

2.6 

%

7.7 

%

Total revenue

$

696,853 

$

625,807 

Net income

$

174,267 

$

108,717 

Adjusted EBITDA(2)

$

244,238 

$

212,061 

(1) The percentage of system-wide sales attributable to company-owned restaurants was 2.4% and 2.5% for the fiscal years ended December 27, 2025 and December 28, 2024, respectively. The remainder was generated by franchised restaurants, as reported by our franchisees.

(2) EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are supplemental measures of our performance that are not required by, or presented in accordance with, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”). EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net income or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP. These should not be viewed as an alternative to cash flows from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity.

We caution investors that amounts presented in accordance with our definitions of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similar measures disclosed by our competitors, because not all companies and analysts calculate EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in the same manner. We present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because we consider them to be important supplemental measures of our performance and believe they are frequently used by securities analysts, investors, and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. Management believes that investors’ understanding of our performance is enhanced by including these non-GAAP financial measures as a reasonable basis for comparing our ongoing results of operations. Many investors are interested in understanding the performance of our business by comparing our results from ongoing operations on a period-over-period basis and would ordinarily add back non-cash expenses such as depreciation and amortization, as well as items that are not part of normal day-to-day operations of our business.

Management uses EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA:

•as a measurement of operating performance because they assist us in comparing the operating performance of our restaurants on a consistent basis, as they remove the impact of items not directly resulting from our core operations;

•for planning purposes, including the preparation of our internal annual operating budget and financial projections;

•to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of our operational strategies;

•to evaluate our capacity to fund capital expenditures and expand our business; and

•to calculate incentive compensation payments for our employees, including assessing performance under our annual incentive compensation plan and determining the vesting of performance-based equity awards.

By providing these non-GAAP financial measures, together with a reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measure, we believe we are enhancing investors’ understanding of our business and our results of operations, as well as assisting investors in evaluating how well we are executing our strategic initiatives. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation, or as an alternative to, or a substitute for net income or other financial statement data presented in our consolidated financial statements as indicators of financial performance. Some of the limitations are:

•such measures do not reflect our cash expenditures or future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments;

•such measures do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

•such measures do not reflect the interest expense or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments on our debt;

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•such measures do not reflect our tax expense or the cash requirements to pay our taxes;

•although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will often have to be replaced in the future and such measures do not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements; and

•other companies in our industry may calculate such measures differently than we do, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures.

Due to these limitations, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as measures of discretionary cash available to us to invest in the growth of our business. We compensate for these limitations by relying primarily on our GAAP results and using these non-GAAP measures only as performance measures and only supplementally. As noted in the table below, Adjusted EBITDA includes adjustments for losses on debt extinguishment and financing transactions, transaction costs, costs and fees associated with investments in our strategic initiatives, certain system implementation costs, gains and losses on non-recurring transactions, and stock-based compensation expense. We believe these adjustments are appropriate because the amounts recognized can vary significantly from period to period, do not directly relate to the ongoing operations of our restaurants, and complicate comparisons of our internal operating results and operating results of other restaurant companies over time. Each of the normal recurring adjustments and other adjustments described in this paragraph and in the reconciliation table below help management measure our core operating performance over time by removing items that are not related to day-to-day operations.

The following table reconciles net income to EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal years ended December 27, 2025 and December 28, 2024 (in thousands):

Year ended

December 27,

2025

December 28,

2024

Net income

$

174,267 

$

108,717 

Interest expense, net

35,784 

21,292 

Income tax expense

62,922 

38,473 

Depreciation and amortization

25,068 

19,490 

EBITDA

$

298,041 

$

187,972 

Additional adjustments:

Transaction costs (a)

497 

316 

Loss on disposal of building (b)

6,534 

— 

Gain on sale of investment (c)

(92,485)

— 

System implementation costs (d)

5,839 

1,713 

Amortization of system implementation costs (e)

934 

— 

Stock-based compensation expense (f)

24,878 

22,060 

Adjusted EBITDA

$

244,238 

$

212,061 

(a) Represents non-recurring transaction costs that are not part of our ongoing operations and were incurred to facilitate the sale and subsequent reinvestment of the Company’s unconsolidated equity method investment in LPH, the Company’s United Kingdom master franchisee, during the fiscal first quarter 2025; all transaction costs are included in Selling, general and administrative on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

(b) Represents a non-recurring loss on the sale of an office building during the fiscal first quarter 2025, which was included in Loss on disposal of assets on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

(c) Represents a non-recurring gain related to the sale of the Company’s unconsolidated equity method investment in LPH during the fiscal first quarter 2025, which was included in Investment (income) expense on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income. Refer to Note 10 in the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

(d) System implementation costs represent non-recurring expenses incurred related to the development and implementation of new enterprise resource planning, human capital management, and global development technology, which are included in Selling, general and administrative on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

(e) Represents amortization associated with capitalized cloud computing costs related to our system implementation, which are included in Selling, general and administrative on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

(f) Includes non-cash, stock-based compensation, net of forfeitures.

33

(3) Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per diluted share are supplemental measures of operating performance that do not represent and should not be considered alternatives to net income and earnings per share, as determined by GAAP. These measures have not been prepared in accordance with Article 11 of Regulation S-X promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). The Company believes the use of adjusted net income allows investors and analysts to better understand the results of the operations of the Company, by excluding certain items that have a disproportionate impact on the Company’s results for a particular period. Additionally, management believes adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per diluted share supplement GAAP measures and enable management to more effectively evaluate the Company’s performance period-over-period and relative to competitors.

The following table reconciles net income to Adjusted net income and calculates adjusted earnings per diluted share for the year ended December 27, 2025 and December 28, 2024 (in thousands):

Year Ended

December 27,

2025

December 28,

2024

Numerator:

Net income

$

174,267 

$

108,717 

Adjustments:

Transaction costs (a)

497 

316 

Loss on disposal of building (b)

6,534 

— 

Gain on sale of investment (c)

(92,485)

— 

System implementation costs (d)

5,839 

1,713 

Amortization of capitalized system implementation costs (e)

934 

— 

Tax effect of adjustments (f)

18,883 

(487)

Adjusted net income

$

114,469 

$

110,259 

Denominator:

Weighted-average shares outstanding - diluted

28,074 

29,384 

Adjusted earnings per diluted share

$

4.08 

$

3.75 

(a) Represents non-recurring transaction costs that are not part of our ongoing operations and were incurred to execute the sale and subsequent reinvestment of the Company’s unconsolidated equity method investment in LPH, the Company’s United Kingdom master franchisee, during the fiscal first quarter 2025; all transaction costs are included in Selling, general and administrative on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

(b) Represents a non-recurring loss on the sale of an office building during the fiscal first quarter 2025, which was included in Loss on disposal of assets on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

(c) Represents a non-recurring gain related to the sale of the Company’s unconsolidated equity method investment in LPH during the fiscal first quarter 2025, which was included in Investment (income) expense on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income. Refer to Note 10 in the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

(d) System implementation costs represent non-recurring expenses incurred related to the development and implementation of new enterprise resource planning, human capital management, and global development technology, which are included in Selling, general and administrative on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

(e) Represents amortization associated with capitalized cloud computing costs related to our system implementation, which are included in Selling, general and administrative on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

(f) Represents the tax effect of the aforementioned adjustments to reflect corporate income taxes at an assumed effective tax rate of 24% for the year ended December 27, 2025, which includes provisions for U.S. federal income taxes, and assumes the respective statutory rates for applicable state and local jurisdictions.

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Results of Operations

Year ended December 27, 2025 compared to year ended December 28, 2024

The following table sets forth certain income and expense items included in the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2024 (in thousands, except for percentages):

Year ended

Increase / (Decrease)

December 27,

2025

December 28,

2024

$

%

Revenue:

Royalty revenue, franchise fees and other

$

321,782 

$

288,354 

$

33,428 

11.6 

%

Advertising fees

247,619 

217,630 

29,989 

13.8 

%

Company-owned restaurant sales

127,452 

119,823 

7,629 

6.4 

%

Total revenue

696,853 

625,807 

71,046 

11.4 

%

Costs and expenses:

Cost of sales (1)

96,058 

91,632 

4,426 

4.8 

%

Advertising expenses

261,545 

233,306 

28,239 

12.1 

%

Selling, general and administrative

128,356 

116,801 

11,555 

9.9 

%

Depreciation and amortization

25,068 

19,490 

5,578 

28.6 

%

(Gain) loss on disposal of assets

6,535 

(1,038)

7,573 

NM*

Total costs and expenses

517,562 

460,191 

57,371 

12.5 

%

Operating income

179,291 

165,616 

13,675 

8.3 

%

Interest expense, net

35,784 

21,292 

14,492 

68.1 

%

Investment (income) expense

(93,682)

(2,866)

(90,816)

NM*

Income before income tax expense

237,189 

147,190 

89,999 

61.1 

%

Income tax expense

62,922 

38,473 

24,449 

63.5 

%

Net income

$

174,267 

$

108,717 

$

65,550 

60.3 

%

*

Not meaningful.

(1)

Cost of sales includes all operating expenses of company-owned restaurants, including advertising expenses, but excludes depreciation and amortization, which are presented separately.

Revenue

During fiscal year 2025, total revenue was $696.9 million, an increase of $71.0 million, or 11.4%, compared to $625.8 million in the prior fiscal year.

Royalty revenue, franchise fees and other increased $33.4 million, of which $22.6 million was due to net new franchise development and $19.1 million related to an increase in royalty fees since December 28, 2024, partially offset by a decrease of $8.3 million contributed by the 3.3% decline in domestic same store sales growth.

Advertising fees increased $30.0 million, of which $19.5 million was due to a 12.1% increase in system-wide sales during fiscal year 2025, and $10.5 million was due to an increase in the national advertising fund contribution rate to 5.5% effective the first day of fiscal year 2025.

Company-owned restaurant sales increased $7.6 million, of which $6.4 million was primarily related to company-owned restaurants opened and acquired during fiscal year 2025, and $1.2 million was related to company-owned same store sales growth of 2.6%, driven primarily by an increase in transactions.

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Cost of sales

Year ended

As a % of company-owned restaurant sales

Year ended

As a % of company-owned restaurant sales

December 27,

2025

December 28,

2024

Food, beverage and packaging costs

$

46,893 

36.8 

%

$

43,371 

36.2 

%

Labor costs

29,576 

23.2 

%

28,317 

23.6 

%

Other restaurant operating expenses

22,751 

17.9 

%

23,025 

19.2 

%

Vendor rebates

(3,162)

(2.5)

%

(3,081)

(2.6)

%

Total cost of sales

$

96,058 

75.4 

%

$

91,632 

76.5 

%

Food, beverage and packaging costs as a percentage of company-owned restaurant sales were 36.8% in fiscal year 2025 compared to 36.2% in the prior fiscal year. The increase as a percentage of company-owned restaurant sales was primarily due to an increase in other food costs during the year, partially offset by a decrease in the cost of bone-in chicken wings as compared to the prior fiscal period.

Labor costs as a percentage of company-owned restaurant sales were 23.2% in fiscal year 2025 compared to 23.6% in the prior fiscal year. The decrease is primarily due to the sales leverage from the sale of corporate restaurants in the New York market to an existing franchisee during the fourth quarter 2024.

Other restaurant operating expenses as a percentage of company-owned restaurant sales were 17.9% in fiscal year 2025 compared to 19.2% in the prior fiscal year. The decrease as a percentage of company-owned restaurant sales was primarily due to sales leverage from the sale of corporate restaurants in the New York market to an existing franchisee during the fourth quarter 2024.

Advertising expenses

Advertising expenses were $261.5 million, an increase of $28.2 million, compared to $233.3 million in fiscal year 2024. Advertising expenses are recognized at the same time the related revenue is recognized, which does not necessarily correlate to the actual timing of the related advertising spend.

Selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”)

SG&A was $128.4 million in fiscal year 2025, an increase of $11.6 million, or 9.9%, compared to $116.8 million in the prior fiscal year. The increase in SG&A expense was driven by an increase in headcount-related expenses of $8.8 million to support the growth in our business and an increase of $2.2 million associated with the Company’s strategic initiatives, including system implementation costs and amortization of cloud computing arrangements.

Depreciation and amortization

Depreciation and amortization was $25.1 million in fiscal year 2025, an increase of $5.6 million, or 28.6%, compared to $19.5 million in the prior fiscal year. The increase in depreciation and amortization was primarily due to capital expenditures related to our technology investments.

(Gain) loss on disposal of assets

(Gain) loss on disposal of assets was $6.5 million related to a loss on sale of an office building during the fiscal first quarter 2025.

Interest expense, net

Interest expense, net was $35.8 million in fiscal year 2025, an increase of $14.5 million, or 68.1%, compared to $21.3 million in the prior fiscal year. The increase was primarily driven by the securitized financing transaction completed on December 3, 2024, which increased our outstanding debt by $500.0 million, partially offset by additional interest income earned on our cash balances and interest earned on our investments as compared to the year ended December 28, 2024.

Investment (income) expense

Investment income was $93.7 million, an increase of $90.8 million compared to $2.9 million in the prior fiscal year. The increase was driven almost entirely by a gain recorded on the sale of the Company’s unconsolidated equity method investment

36

in its United Kingdom franchisee during the fiscal first quarter 2025. See Note 10 of the Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion.

Income tax expense

The effective tax rate in fiscal year 2025 was 26.5%, compared to an effective tax rate of 26.1% in the prior fiscal year. The increase in the effective tax rate was primarily due to an increase in state income taxes.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

General. Our primary sources of liquidity and capital resources are cash provided from operating activities, cash and cash equivalents on hand, and borrowings available under our securitized financing facility. Our primary requirements for liquidity and capital are working capital, general corporate needs, capital expenditures, income tax payments, debt service requirements, and dividend payments. We generally utilize available cash flows from operations to invest in our business, service our debt obligations, pay dividends, and execute our share repurchase program. As of December 27, 2025, the Company had $228.5 million of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash on its balance sheet, including Ad Fund cash and cash equivalents.

Based upon current levels of operations and anticipated growth, we expect that cash flows from operations, combined with our securitized financing facility including our Variable Funding Notes (as defined below), will be sufficient to meet our capital expenditure, working capital and debt service requirements for at least the next twelve months and the foreseeable future.

The following table shows summary cash flows information for fiscal years 2025 and 2024 (in thousands):

Year ended

December 27,

2025

December 28,

2024

Net cash provided by (used in):

Operating activities

$

153,065 

$

157,610 

Investing activities

(17,456)

(62,477)

Financing activities

(266,730)

144,765 

Net change in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

$

(131,121)

$

239,898 

Operating activities. Our cash flows from operating activities are principally driven by sales at both franchise restaurants and company-owned restaurants, as well as franchise fees. We collect franchise royalties from our franchise owners on a weekly basis. Restaurant-level operating costs at our company-owned restaurants, unearned franchise fees, and corporate overhead costs also impact our cash flows from operating activities.

Net cash provided by operating activities was $153.1 million in fiscal year 2025, a decrease of $4.5 million from cash provided by operating activities of $157.6 million in the prior fiscal year. The decrease is primarily due to changes in Ad Fund cash and cash equivalents, directly related to the timing of payments for expenses incurred for national advertising, partially offset by higher operating income.

Investing activities. Our net cash used in investing activities was $17.5 million in fiscal year 2025, a decrease of $45.0 million, from $62.5 million in fiscal year 2024. The decrease in cash used in investing activities was primarily due to the net investments proceeds of $31.2 million from the sale of non-controlling interest in our equity investment in LPH, and $17.3 million of proceeds from the sale of an office building.

Financing activities. Our net cash used in financing activities was $266.7 million in fiscal year 2025, primarily related to the repurchase of $221.9 million in common stock under our share repurchase program, dividend payments of $32.4 million, and tax payments of $13.9 million. Cash provided by financing activities of $144.8 million in fiscal year 2024 was primarily attributable to the additional borrowings under our 2024 Class A-2 Notes (as defined below) of $500.0 million, partially offset by share repurchases of $314.7 million, dividend payments of $28.9 million, and tax payments of $4.4 million.

Securitized financing facility. On December 3, 2024, we completed a securitized financing transaction, in which Wingstop Funding LLC, a limited purpose, bankruptcy-remote, indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the Company (the “Issuer”), issued $500.0 million of its Series 2024-1 5.858% Fixed Rate Senior Secured Notes, Class A-2 (the “2024 Class A-2 Notes”). The Issuer also increased the capacity of its revolving financing facility of Series 2022-1 Variable Funding Senior Notes, Class A-1 (the “Variable Funding Notes”) from $200.0 million to $300.0 million. Following the increase, borrowing capacity under the

37

Variable Funding Notes permits borrowings of up to a maximum principal amount of $300.0 million, of which a portion may be used to issue letters of credit. The 2024 Class A-2 Notes and the Variable Funding Notes are referred to collectively as the “2024 Notes.” The proceeds from the securitized financing transaction were used to pay related transaction fees and expenses, strengthen our liquidity position and for general corporate purposes, including the repurchase of shares of the Company’s common stock. As of December 27, 2025, no borrowings were outstanding under the Variable Funding Notes.

In addition to the 2024 Notes, our outstanding debt consists of its existing Series 2022-1 3.734% Fixed Rate Senior Secured Notes, Class A-2 (the “2022 Notes”) and Series 2020-1 2.84% Fixed Rate Senior Secured Notes, Class A-2 (the “2020 Notes”).

Dividends. We paid quarterly cash dividends of $0.27 per share of common stock in each of the first two quarters of 2025, and quarterly cash dividends of $0.30 per share of common stock in both the third and fourth quarters of 2025, resulting in aggregate quarterly dividend payments of $31.8 million in fiscal year 2025. On February 17, 2026, the Company’s board of directors approved a dividend of $0.30 per share, to be paid on March 27, 2026 to stockholders of record as of March 6, 2026, totaling approximately $8.3 million.

We do not currently expect the restrictions in our debt instruments to impact our ability to make regular quarterly dividends pursuant to our quarterly dividend program. However, any future declarations of dividends, as well as the amount and timing of such dividends, is subject to capital availability and the discretion of our board of directors, which must evaluate, among other things, whether cash dividends are in the best interest of our stockholders.

Share Repurchase Program. We have returned capital to shareholders through share repurchases, which historically have been primarily funded with cash generated from our operations and the 2024 Class A-2 Notes described above. During fiscal years 2025, 2024, and 2023, we used approximately $221.9 million, $314.7 million, and $125.4 million, respectively, to repurchase and retire shares of our common stock.

Since inception of our share repurchase program in August 2023, we have repurchased and retired an aggregate of 2,585,149 shares of common stock at an average price of $258.64 per share. As of December 27, 2025, approximately $91.3 million remained available for repurchase under our share repurchase program.

Contractual Obligations

Our cash requirements greater than twelve months from contractual obligations and commitments include:

Debt Obligations and Interest Payments. Refer to “Note 11 - Debt Obligations” of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for further information of our obligations and the timing of expected payments.

Operating Leases. Refer to “Note 12 - Leases” of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for further information of our obligations and the timing of expected payments.

Indemnifications. We are parties to certain indemnification obligations to third parties in the ordinary course of business. We believe the probability of incurring an actual liability under such indemnifications is sufficiently remote so that no liability has been recorded.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses. These estimates may require application of management’s most difficult, subjective or complex judgments, often as a result of matters that are inherently uncertain and may change in subsequent periods. While we apply our judgment based on assumptions believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, actual results could vary from these assumptions. It is possible that materially different amounts would be reported using different assumptions. Our most significant accounting policies and estimates are more fully described in “Note 1 - Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements. However, we believe the accounting policies described below are particularly important to the portrayal and understanding of our financial position and results of operations.

Revenue Recognition

Revenues consist primarily of royalties, national advertising fund contributions, initial and renewal franchise fees, and upfront fees from development agreements and international territory agreements. The Company's performance obligations under its

38

franchise agreements consist of (a) a franchise license, (b) pre-opening services, such as training, and (c) ongoing services, such as management of Ad Fund contributions, development of training materials and menu items, and restaurant monitoring. These performance obligations are highly interrelated, so they are not considered to be individually distinct and therefore are accounted for as a single performance obligation, which is satisfied by providing a right to use the Company's intellectual property over the term of each franchise agreement. Franchise fee, development fee and international territory fee payments received by the Company before the restaurant opens are recorded as deferred revenue in the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Royalties, including franchisee contributions to the Ad Fund, are calculated as a percentage of franchise restaurant sales over the term of the franchise agreement. Initial and renewal franchise fees are payable by the franchisee prior to the restaurant opening or at the time of a renewal of an existing franchise agreement. The Company's franchise agreement royalties, inclusive of Ad Fund contributions, represent sales-based royalties that are related entirely to the Company's performance obligation under the franchise agreement and are recognized as franchised restaurant sales occur, payable weekly. Additionally, initial and renewal franchise fees are recognized as revenue on a straight-line basis over the term of the respective agreement. The Company's performance obligation under development agreements and international territory agreements generally consists of an obligation to grant exclusive development rights over a stated term. These development rights are not distinct from franchise agreements, so upfront fees paid by franchisees for development rights are apportioned to each franchised restaurant opened and accounted for as an initial franchise fee.