Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) Insider Sells £72,735.30 in Stock

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) insider Hemant Patel sold 2,607 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 2,790 ($37.70), for a total transaction of £72,735.30 ($98,290.95).

Whitbread Price Performance

WTB stock traded down GBX 8.58 ($0.12) on Wednesday, hitting GBX 2,838.42 ($38.36). 615,309 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,358,134. The stock has a fifty day moving average of GBX 2,613.91 and a 200-day moving average of GBX 2,750.05. Whitbread plc has a 1-year low of GBX 2,253 ($30.45) and a 1-year high of GBX 3,352 ($45.30). The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.18. The stock has a market cap of £5.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.95, a P/E/G ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11.

Whitbread (LON:WTB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported GBX 194.60 ($2.63) EPS for the quarter. Whitbread had a return on equity of 6.83% and a net margin of 8.08%. On average, analysts forecast that Whitbread plc will post 227.1851852 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Whitbread announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase 0 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on WTB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Whitbread to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Whitbread from GBX 3,700 ($50.00) to GBX 3,300 ($44.59) and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Shore Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Whitbread in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of GBX 2,860 ($38.65).

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.