Whitbread's (WTB) Hold Rating Reaffirmed at Berenberg Bank

Key Points

• Berenberg Bank reaffirmed its “hold” rating on Whitbread and set a GBX 2,250 price target, implying approximately 19.07% downside from the current share price.
• Analyst sentiment remains moderately positive overall: Whitbread has four Buy and four Hold ratings, resulting in a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average target price of GBX 2,919.38.
• Whitbread reported quarterly EPS of GBX 125.10, while analysts expect full-year EPS of GBX 227.19. The company operates Premier Inn hotels across the U.K. and Germany.

Whitbread (LON:WTB - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "hold" rating reissued by analysts at Berenberg Bank in a research report issued on Thursday, London Stock Exchange reports. They currently have a GBX 2,250 target price on the stock. Berenberg Bank's price target points to a potential downside of 19.07% from the stock's current price.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Whitbread from GBX 3,100 to GBX 3,300 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 21st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Whitbread from GBX 2,280 to GBX 2,400 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Whitbread currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of GBX 2,919.38.

Whitbread Stock Performance

Shares of WTB opened at GBX 2,780.30 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of £4.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 0.65. The company's fifty day moving average is GBX 2,449.95 and its 200-day moving average is GBX 2,469.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 179.41. Whitbread has a 12 month low of GBX 2,098 and a 12 month high of GBX 3,017.

Whitbread (LON:WTB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 13th. The company reported GBX 125.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Whitbread had a net margin of 1.96% and a return on equity of 1.85%. Equities analysts expect that Whitbread will post 227.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Shelley Roberts acquired 485 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of GBX 2,456 per share, for a total transaction of £11,911.60. Company insiders own 0.42% 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.