WINGSTOP INC. (NASDAQ:WING) Files An 8-K Results of Operations and Financial Condition

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WINGSTOP INC. (NASDAQ:WING) Files An 8-K Results of Operations and Financial Condition

Item 2.02. Results of Operations and Financial Condition

The following information is furnished to Item 2.02, Results of
Operations and Financial Condition. Consequently, it is not
deemed filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of
that section. It may only be incorporated by reference in another
filing under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or Securities
Act of 1933 if such subsequent filing specifically references
this Form 8-K.
On May 4, 2017, Wingstop Inc. issued a press release reporting
the Companys financial results for its first>quarter ended
April 1, 2017. A copy of the press release is attached hereto as
Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated by reference herein in its
entirety. The press release uses the following non-GAAP financial
measures: EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and
adjusted earnings per diluted share. A discussion of these
financial measures, including a discussion of the usefulness and
purpose of each measure, is included below.
EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA.>EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are
supplemental measures of our performance that are not required
by, or presented in accordance with, U.S. GAAP. EBITDA and
Adjusted EBITDA are not measurements of our financial performance
under U.S. GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to
net income or any other performance measure derived in accordance
with U.S. GAAP, or as an alternative to cash flows from operating
activities as a measure of our liquidity.
We define EBITDA as net income before interest expense, net,
income tax expense, and depreciation and amortization. We define
Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA further adjusted for management fees
and expense reimbursement, management agreement termination fees,
transaction costs, gains and losses on the disposal of assets,
and stock-based compensation expense. 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 period over period 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 shares.
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.
Items excluded from these non-GAAP measures are significant
components in understanding and assessing financial performance.
In addition, the instruments governing our indebtedness use
EBITDA (with additional adjustments) to measure our compliance
with covenants such as fixed charge coverage, lease adjusted
leverage and debt incurrence. 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 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 U.S. GAAP results and
using these non-GAAP measures only supplementally. As noted in
the attached exhibit, Adjusted EBITDA includes adjustments for
transaction costs, gains and losses on disposal of assets and
stock-based compensation, among other items. It is reasonable to
expect that these items will occur in future periods. However, 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. In
addition, Adjusted EBITDA includes adjustments for other items
that we do not expect to regularly record, such as management
fees and expense reimbursement. Each of the normal recurring
adjustments and other adjustments described in this paragraph and
in the attached exhibit help management with a measure of our
core operating performance over time by removing items that are
not related to day-to-day operations.
Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Earnings per Diluted Share.
Adjusted net income represents net income adjusted for management
fees, transaction costs related to our public offerings, and
related tax adjustments that management believes are not
indicative of the Companys core operating results or business
outlook over the long-term. However, it is reasonable to assume
that transaction costs for financing transactions may occur in
future periods. Adjusted earnings per diluted share is defined as
Adjusted net income divided by diluted share count. 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.
Management believes adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per
diluted share supplement GAAP measures and enables them to more
effectively evaluate the Companys performance period-over-period
and relative to competitors.
Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits
(d) Exhibits
99.1 Press release, dated May 4, 2017>(furnished to the
Commission as part of this Form 8-K).


About WINGSTOP INC. (NASDAQ:WING)

Wingstop Inc. is a franchisor and operator of restaurants that specialize in cooked-to-order, hand-sauced and tossed chicken wings. The Company offers its guests with over 11 flavors on bone-in and boneless chicken wings paired with hand-cut, seasoned fries and sides. It is a casual chicken wings-focused restaurant chain with various concepts, which include wings as add-on menu items or focus on wings in a bar or sports-centric setting. The flavors include Atomic, Mango Habanero, Cajun, Louisiana Rub, Mild, Hickory Smoked BBQ, Lemon Pepper, Garlic Parmesan, Hawaiian and Teriyaki. It offers various order options, including eat-in, to go, individual, combo meals and family packs. It operates through two segments: Franchise and Company. The Franchise segment consists of its domestic and international franchise restaurants, which represent the majority of its system-wide restaurants. The Company segment consists of company-owned restaurants, which are located only in the United States.

WINGSTOP INC. (NASDAQ:WING) Recent Trading Information

WINGSTOP INC. (NASDAQ:WING) closed its last trading session down -0.17 at 29.00 with 716,306 shares trading hands.