SSP Group (LON:SSPG) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

SSP Group plc (LON:SSPG)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as GBX 212.20 and last traded at GBX 211.94, with a volume of 13839002 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 211.20.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SSPG. Peel Hunt reissued a “buy” rating and set a GBX 275 target price on shares of SSP Group in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Berenberg Bank reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 190 target price on shares of SSP Group in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 310 price target (down previously from GBX 330) on shares of SSP Group in a research note on Monday, October 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on SSP Group from GBX 190 to GBX 170 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of SSP Group from GBX 285 to GBX 262 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of GBX 229.50.

SSP Group Trading Up 0.3%

The stock’s 50 day moving average price is GBX 160.50 and its 200-day moving average price is GBX 164.14. The stock has a market capitalization of £1.68 billion, a PE ratio of -70.65, a PEG ratio of -0.77 and a beta of 1.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 852.29.

SSP Group (LON:SSPG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 4th. The company reported GBX 11 EPS for the quarter. SSP Group had a return on equity of 3.64% and a net margin of 0.24%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that SSP Group plc will post 13.1004016 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SSP Group announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, October 9th that permits the company to repurchase 0 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at SSP Group

In related news, insider Karina Deacon acquired 18,000 shares of SSP Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were bought at an average cost of GBX 171 per share, with a total value of £30,780. Also, insider Tim Lodge purchased 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 172 per share, for a total transaction of £25,800. Insiders bought a total of 227,675 shares of company stock valued at $38,884,478 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

About SSP Group

SSP is a leading operator of food and beverage outlets in travel locations worldwide, with c.37,000 colleagues in over 600 locations across 36 countries. We operate sit-down and quick service restaurants, cafes, lounges and food-led convenience stores, principally in airports and train stations, with a portfolio of more than 550 international, national and local brands. These include our own brands (such as UrbanCrave, which brought the first “street eats” concept to airports in the US, Nippon Ramen, a noodle and dumpling concept in the Asia Pac region, and Juniper, a premium bar in the UK) as well as franchise brands (such as M&S, Starbucks and Burger King).