Whitbread (LON:WTB) Shares Down 11.3% – Here’s What Happened

by · The Cerbat Gem

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB – Get Free Report)’s share price traded down 11.3% 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WTB. Shore Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Whitbread in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Whitbread from GBX 2,800 to GBX 2,900 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Peel Hunt reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 3,500 target price on shares of Whitbread in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Whitbread from GBX 3,600 to GBX 3,800 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Panmure Gordon restated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 3,700 price target on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of GBX 3,480.

Read Our Latest Report on Whitbread

Whitbread Price Performance

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of GBX 3,004.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of GBX 2,998.16. The stock has a market cap of £4.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.43, a PEG ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.18.

Whitbread (LON:WTB – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The company reported GBX 133.70 EPS for the quarter. Whitbread had a return on equity of 6.83% and a net margin of 8.08%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Whitbread plc will post 227.1851852 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

About Whitbread

(Get Free Report)

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.

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