Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the seven ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is GBX 3,194.17.

WTB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Peel Hunt reissued a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,500 price target on shares of Whitbread in a report on Thursday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Whitbread from GBX 2,900 to GBX 2,450 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Whitbread to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from GBX 3,375 to GBX 2,815 in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Berenberg Bank lowered their price target on shares of Whitbread from GBX 3,500 to GBX 2,900 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Shore Capital reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Whitbread in a research report on Thursday, October 16th.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Richard Gillingwater bought 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of GBX 2,974 per share, for a total transaction of £14,870. Also, insider Christine Mary Hodgson purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of GBX 2,880 per share, with a total value of £288,000. Insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Whitbread Stock Up 7.1%

Shares of Whitbread stock opened at GBX 2,767 on Wednesday. Whitbread has a 1 year low of GBX 2,253 and a 1 year high of GBX 3,302. The firm has a market cap of £4.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.34, a PEG ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day moving average of GBX 2,602.61 and a 200 day moving average of GBX 2,924.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.18, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 1.74.

Whitbread (LON:WTB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The company reported GBX 133.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Whitbread had a net margin of 8.08% and a return on equity of 6.83%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Whitbread will post 227.1851852 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.