Whitbread (LON:WTB) Shares Down 11.3% - Here's Why

Whitbread plc (LON:WTB - Get Free Report)'s stock price fell 11.3% during trading on Saturday . The company traded as low as GBX 2,490 and last traded at GBX 2,493.73. 2,620,126 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 8% from the average session volume of 2,415,451 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 2,812.Analysts Set New Price TargetsSeveral brokerages recently issued reports on WTB. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Whitbread from GBX 2,800 to GBX 2,900 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Shore Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Panmure Gordon reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a GBX 3,700 target price on shares of Whitbread in a report on Tuesday. Peel Hunt reissued a "buy" rating and issued a GBX 3,500 price target on shares of Whitbread in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Whitbread from GBX 3,600 to GBX 3,800 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Whitbread currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of GBX 3,480.Read Our Latest Stock Report on WTBWhitbread Trading Down 11.3%The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.18. The company has a market capitalization of £4.26 billion, a PE ratio of 17.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 1.11. The stock's fifty day moving average price is GBX 3,004.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is GBX 2,998.16. Whitbread (LON:WTB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The company reported GBX 133.70 EPS for the quarter. Whitbread had a return on equity of 6.83% and a net margin of 8.08%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Whitbread plc will post 227.1851852 earnings per share for the current year. Insiders Place Their BetsIn related news, insider Christine Mary Hodgson bought 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 17th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of GBX 2,880 per share, with a total value of £288,000. Also, insider Richard Gillingwater bought 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 21st. The shares were bought at an average cost of GBX 2,974 per share, for a total transaction of £14,870. Company insiders own 0.38% of the company's stock. About Whitbread (Get Free Report)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.Read MoreFive stocks we like better than WhitbreadInvesting in Construction StocksMeta Platforms May Ditch NVIDIA Chips—Here’s Why Investors CareWhat Are Dividends? Buy the Best Dividend StocksSoFi Technologies: From Fintech Speculation to Profit EngineNYSE Stocks Give Investors a Variety of Quality Options Gold to $5,000? What Bank of America and UBS Have to SayThis 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.Should You Invest $1,000 in Whitbread Right Now?Before you consider Whitbread, you'll want to hear this.MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Whitbread wasn't on the list.While Whitbread currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.View The Five Stocks Here