Whitbread (LON:WTB) Earns “Buy” Rating from Shore Capital

Whitbread (LON:WTB)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities researchers at Shore Capital in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Whitbread from GBX 3,700 ($49.08) to GBX 3,300 ($43.78) and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Whitbread to a “neutral” rating in a research report 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of GBX 2,860 ($37.94).

Whitbread Trading Down 1.6 %

LON:WTB opened at GBX 2,700.34 ($35.82) on Thursday. Whitbread has a 52 week low of GBX 2,253 ($29.89) and a 52 week high of GBX 3,352 ($44.47). The firm has a 50-day moving average price of GBX 2,533.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of GBX 2,798.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.18, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market cap of £4.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11.

Whitbread (LON:WTB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported GBX 194.60 ($2.58) EPS for the quarter. Whitbread had a return on equity of 6.83% and a net margin of 8.08%. On average, equities analysts expect that Whitbread will post 227.1851852 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Whitbread declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase 0 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Whitbread

In other news, insider Kal Atwal acquired 1,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was bought at an average cost of GBX 2,621 ($34.77) per share, for a total transaction of £29,617.30 ($39,290.66). Corporate insiders own 1.03% of the company’s stock.

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.