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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on WTB. Peel Hunt reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,500 price objective on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. 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 report on Friday, October 17th. Citigroup increased 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 note on Thursday, August 21st. Shore Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Panmure Gordon restated a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,700 price objective on shares of Whitbread in a report on Tuesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of GBX 3,480.

Whitbread Trading 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is GBX 3,004.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 2,997.14. The stock has a market capitalization of £4.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.43, a PEG ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11.

Whitbread (LON:WTB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Whitbread plc will post 227.1851852 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Whitbread

In related news, insider Richard Gillingwater acquired 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, with a total value of £14,870. Also, insider Christine Mary Hodgson acquired 10,000 shares of Whitbread stock in a transaction on Friday, October 17th. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 2,880 per share, for a total transaction of £288,000. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.