Whitbread (LON:WTB) Shares Down 11.3% – What’s Next?

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) fell 11.3% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as GBX 2,490 and last traded at GBX 2,493.73. 2,620,126 shares changed hands 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

Several research firms have recently weighed in on WTB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Whitbread from GBX 2,800 to GBX 2,900 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Peel Hunt reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 3,500 price target on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Shore Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Panmure Gordon reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,700 target price on shares of Whitbread in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Whitbread from GBX 3,600 to GBX 3,800 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of GBX 3,480.

Whitbread Stock Down 11.3%

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’s fifty day simple moving average is GBX 3,004.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 2,998.16. The stock has a market cap of £4.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.43, a PEG ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11.

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, research analysts anticipate that Whitbread plc will post 227.1851852 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Whitbread

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

Whitbread Company Profile

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.