Whitbread (LON:WTB) Trading Down 11.3% – Should You Sell?

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB)’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 traded hands during mid-day 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

WTB has been the subject of several research reports. Shore Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of Whitbread in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Panmure Gordon reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 3,700 price objective on shares of Whitbread in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Peel Hunt reiterated a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,500 price objective 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Whitbread from GBX 2,800 to GBX 2,900 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of GBX 3,480.

Whitbread Stock Down 11.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.18, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is GBX 3,004.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 2,998.16. The stock has a market capitalization of £4.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Insider Transactions at Whitbread

In other news, insider Richard Gillingwater bought 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was acquired at an average price of GBX 2,974 per share, with a total value of £14,870. Also, insider Christine Mary Hodgson purchased 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 17th. The shares were purchased at an average price 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.