Citi lifts Whitbread price target, reiterates 'buy' rating

(Sharecast News) - Citi lifted its price target on Whitbread on Thursday to 3,800p from 3,600p as it reiterated its 'buy' rating, saying it sees a "compelling investment case" after the 29% share price increase since April. "Balance sheet strength enables growth beyond the UK market as our UK project tracker shows circa 30% of Premier Inn's pipeline is office-to-hotel conversions, while in Germany we are encouraged by a Q2 hotel development pipeline inflection," the bank said.

"With current RevPAR growth not significantly skewed by concert calendars or weather, and inbound-outbound travel now broadly normalised supports a recovery over time towards c.+2% RevPAR driven by economic factors and supported by our expectation of c.0.5% UK market supply growth."

Citi said the stock's valuation is undemanding versus its own history and the UK market and the underlying investment case driving 10% earnings per share growth compelling.

At 1030 BST, the shares were up 1.6% at 3,157p.