Whitbread (LON:WTB) Stock Crosses Below 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) passed below its 200-day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of GBX 2,482.90 and traded as low as GBX 2,276. Whitbread shares last traded at GBX 2,330.32, with a volume of 29,911,199 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WTB has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup decreased their target price on Whitbread from £330 to £310 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 19th. Shore Capital Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,700 price target on shares of Whitbread in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 2,975 price target on shares of Whitbread in a report on Friday, June 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Whitbread from GBX 2,815 to GBX 2,530 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Berenberg Bank restated a “hold” rating and set a GBX 2,280 price objective on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of GBX 6,523.12.

Whitbread Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of £3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04, a PEG ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 0.65. The stock’s fifty day moving average is GBX 2,372.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is GBX 2,482.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 174.28, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 0.44.

Whitbread (LON:WTB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The company reported GBX 123.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Whitbread had a net margin of 7.29% and a return on equity of 6.73%. The firm had revenue of GBX 292.02 billion during the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Whitbread plc will post 227.1851852 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Whitbread news, insider Dominic Paul acquired 717 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 3rd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of GBX 2,410 per share, with a total value of £17,279.70. Also, insider Shelley Roberts acquired 1,290 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of GBX 2,309 per share, with a total value of £29,786.10. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

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.