Whitbread (LON:WTB) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results

Whitbread (LON:WTB - Get Free Report) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported GBX 194.60 ($2.59) earnings per share for the quarter, Digital Look Earnings reports. Whitbread had a return on equity of 6.83% and a net margin of 8.08%.

Whitbread Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of LON WTB traded down GBX 42.66 ($0.57) during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting GBX 2,700.34 ($35.89). 630,090 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,692,199. The business has a 50 day moving average of GBX 2,533.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of GBX 2,790.35. The stock has a market capitalization of £4.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.88, a PEG ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11. Whitbread has a 1 year low of GBX 2,253 ($29.95) and a 1 year high of GBX 3,352 ($44.56). The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.18.

Whitbread announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that authorizes the company to buyback 0 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Kal Atwal bought 1,130 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were bought at an average cost of GBX 2,621 ($34.84) per share, with a total value of £29,617.30 ($39,369.00). Corporate insiders own 1.03% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WTB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Whitbread from GBX 3,700 ($49.18) to GBX 3,300 ($43.87) and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Shore Capital reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Whitbread to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of GBX 2,860 ($38.02).

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.