Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) Insider Buys £7,647.67 in Stock

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) insider Kal Atwal bought 269 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of GBX 2,843 ($37.77) per share, for a total transaction of £7,647.67 ($10,158.97).

Kal Atwal also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, February 20th, Kal Atwal bought 1,130 shares of Whitbread stock. The stock was purchased at an average price of GBX 2,621 ($34.82) per share, for a total transaction of £29,617.30 ($39,342.85).

Whitbread Price Performance

Whitbread stock opened at GBX 2,830 ($37.59) on Friday. Whitbread plc has a 1 year low of GBX 2,253 ($29.93) and a 1 year high of GBX 3,352 ($44.53). The company’s 50 day simple moving average is GBX 2,573.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 2,770.91. The company has a market capitalization of £5.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.18, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Whitbread (LON:WTB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported GBX 194.60 ($2.59) earnings per share for the quarter. Whitbread had a net margin of 8.08% and a return on equity of 6.83%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Whitbread plc will post 227.1851852 earnings per share for the current year.

Whitbread announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to buyback 0 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on WTB. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Whitbread from GBX 3,700 ($49.15) to GBX 3,300 ($43.84) and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Shore Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Whitbread to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of GBX 2,860 ($37.99).

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.