Whitbread share price tumbles on Barclays downgrade
Whitbread suffered a fall in its share price this morning after Barclays downgraded the UK’s biggest hospitality company.
The Premier Inn owner’s share price has tumbled five per cent during trading today after its rating was cut by Barclays, which moved its recommendation from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight’.
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“Weighing up the positives and negatives alongside the utter lack of visibility around Brexit, we cut to Equal Weight and see more downside than upside risks currently, especially into interim results,” the bank said.
The FTSE 100 company’s stock has fallen in value by almost 10 per cent over the last year, with its share price currently standing at 4,253p.
In April the firm blamed Brexit uncertainty and growing competition for lower demand for hotel rooms in Britain.
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“This weakness has increased into March and April particularly in the regional business market, coinciding with an acute period of political and economic uncertainty in the UK,” Whitbread said at the time.
Whitbread has been focused on its hotel arm following the £3.9bn sale of Costa to Coca-Cola at the start of this year.
Elsewhere in the market today, DS Smith shares edged up 1.7 per cent following news that Britain’s competition watchdog will not continue its probe into the acquisition of the firm’s flexible plastic packaging division by Liqui-Box.
Home emergency repairs business Homeserve also saw shares rise 2.5 per cent after RBC Capital rasied the company to Outperform from Sector Perform.