SSP Group (LON:SSPG) Share Price Passes Above 50 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

SSP Group plc (LON:SSPG)’s stock price crossed above its fifty day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a fifty day moving average of GBX 176.03 and traded as high as GBX 190.90. SSP Group shares last traded at GBX 190.90, with a volume of 1,639,020 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on SSPG. Berenberg Bank reiterated a “buy” rating and set a GBX 190 target price on shares of SSP Group in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 310 target price (down previously from GBX 330) on shares of SSP Group in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on SSP Group from GBX 285 to GBX 262 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Shore Capital reaffirmed a “house stock” rating on shares of SSP Group in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Peel Hunt reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 275 price objective on shares of SSP Group in a report on Friday, October 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SSP Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of GBX 229.50.

SSP Group Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of £1.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.83, a P/E/G ratio of -0.77 and a beta of 1.88. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of GBX 176.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 168.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 852.29.

SSP Group (LON:SSPG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 4th. The company reported GBX 11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. SSP Group had a return on equity of 3.64% and a net margin of 0.24%. On average, equities analysts forecast that SSP Group plc will post 13.1004016 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SSP Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, October 9th that permits the company to repurchase 0 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other SSP Group news, insider Patrick Coveney sold 136,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 174, for a total value of £237,299.46. Also, insider Karina Deacon acquired 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of GBX 171 per share, with a total value of £30,780. Insiders purchased 227,675 shares of company stock worth $38,884,478 in the last 90 days. 1.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About SSP Group

SSP is a leading operator of food and beverage outlets in travel locations worldwide, with c.37,000 colleagues in over 600 locations across 36 countries. We operate sit-down and quick service restaurants, cafes, lounges and food-led convenience stores, principally in airports and train stations, with a portfolio of more than 550 international, national and local brands. These include our own brands (such as UrbanCrave, which brought the first “street eats” concept to airports in the US, Nippon Ramen, a noodle and dumpling concept in the Asia Pac region, and Juniper, a premium bar in the UK) as well as franchise brands (such as M&S, Starbucks and Burger King).