Whitbread (LON:WTB) Stock Price Down 11.5% – Time to Sell?

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) shares fell 11.5% on Friday . The stock traded as low as GBX 2,490 and last traded at GBX 2,490. 2,578,030 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 7% from the average session volume of 2,415,269 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 2,812.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WTB has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Shore Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Whitbread in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Panmure Gordon reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 3,700 price target on shares of Whitbread in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Whitbread from GBX 2,800 to GBX 2,900 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Whitbread from GBX 3,600 to GBX 3,800 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Peel Hunt reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 3,500 target price on shares of Whitbread in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is GBX 3,018.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is GBX 2,999.53. The firm has a market capitalization of £4.26 billion, a PE ratio of 17.43, a PEG ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Whitbread

In other Whitbread news, insider Christine Mary Hodgson purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 17th. The shares were bought at an average cost of GBX 2,880 per share, for a total transaction of £288,000. Also, insider Richard Gillingwater acquired 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of GBX 2,974 per share, with a total value of £14,870. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Whitbread

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.