SSP Group (LON:SSPG) Share Price Passes Above 50 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

SSP Group plc (LON:SSPG) shares crossed above its fifty day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a fifty day moving average of GBX 176.03 and traded as high as GBX 190.90. SSP Group shares last traded at GBX 190.90, with a volume of 1,639,020 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on SSPG. Shore Capital reiterated a “house stock” rating on shares of SSP Group in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of SSP Group from GBX 190 to GBX 170 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of SSP Group from GBX 285 to GBX 262 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Peel Hunt restated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 275 price objective on shares of SSP Group in a report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 310 target price (down previously from GBX 330) on shares of SSP Group in a report on Monday, October 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of GBX 229.50.

SSP Group Stock Up 1.5%

The firm has a market cap of £1.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -0.77 and a beta of 1.88. The firm’s 50 day moving average is GBX 176.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is GBX 168.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 852.29.

SSP Group (LON:SSPG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 4th. The company reported GBX 11 earnings per share for the quarter. SSP Group had a net margin of 0.24% and a return on equity of 3.64%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that SSP Group plc will post 13.1004016 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SSP Group announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, October 9th that allows the company to buyback 0 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at SSP Group

In other SSP Group news, insider Patrick Coveney purchased 149,669 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of GBX 168 per share, for a total transaction of £251,443.92. Also, insider Geert Verellen purchased 41,006 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of GBX 181 per share, for a total transaction of £74,220.86. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 227,675 shares of company stock valued at $38,884,478. Insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

SSP Group Company Profile

SSP is a leading operator of food and beverage outlets in travel locations worldwide, with c.37,000 colleagues in over 600 locations across 36 countries. We operate sit-down and quick service restaurants, cafes, lounges and food-led convenience stores, principally in airports and train stations, with a portfolio of more than 550 international, national and local brands. These include our own brands (such as UrbanCrave, which brought the first “street eats” concept to airports in the US, Nippon Ramen, a noodle and dumpling concept in the Asia Pac region, and Juniper, a premium bar in the UK) as well as franchise brands (such as M&S, Starbucks and Burger King).