Whitbread (LON:WTB) Trading Down 11.3% – Time to Sell?

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB)’s stock price traded down 11.3% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as GBX 2,490 and last traded at GBX 2,493.73. 2,620,126 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 8% from the average session volume of 2,415,451 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 2,812.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Peel Hunt reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 3,500 target price on shares of Whitbread in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Panmure Gordon reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,700 price objective on shares of Whitbread in a research report on Tuesday. Shore Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Whitbread in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Whitbread from GBX 3,600 to GBX 3,800 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Whitbread from GBX 2,800 to GBX 2,900 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of GBX 3,480.

Whitbread Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.18, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 1.74. The stock has a market capitalization of £4.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.43, a PEG ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day moving average is GBX 3,004.93 and its 200-day moving average is GBX 2,997.14.

Whitbread (LON:WTB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The company reported GBX 133.70 earnings per share for the quarter. Whitbread had a return on equity of 6.83% and a net margin of 8.08%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Whitbread plc will post 227.1851852 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Whitbread

In other news, insider Christine Mary Hodgson purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 17th. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 2,880 per share, with a total value of £288,000. Also, insider Richard Gillingwater acquired 500 shares of Whitbread stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was purchased at an average price of GBX 2,974 per share, with a total value of £14,870. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Whitbread

Whitbread is the owner of Premier Inn, the UK’s biggest
hotel brand, with 86,000 rooms in over 850 hotels
and a growing presence in Germany with 10,500 rooms in
59 hotels, offering quality accommodation at affordable
prices in great locations.

People are at the heart of our business. We employ over
38,000 team members in over 900 Premier Inn hotels
across the UK and Germany.