Whitbread (WTB) Competitors

Whitbread (LON:WTB) and InterContinental Hotels Group (LON:IHG) are both consumer cyclical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, community ranking, analyst recommendations, profitability, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings and dividends.

Is WTB or IHG a better dividend stock?

Whitbread pays an annual dividend of GBX 97 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. InterContinental Hotels Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 125 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Whitbread pays out 75.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. InterContinental Hotels Group pays out 41.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in WTB or IHG?

71.9% of Whitbread shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.8% of InterContinental Hotels Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Whitbread shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.0% of InterContinental Hotels Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor WTB or IHG?

In the previous week, InterContinental Hotels Group had 4 more articles in the media than Whitbread. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for InterContinental Hotels Group and 2 mentions for Whitbread. InterContinental Hotels Group's average media sentiment score of 0.25 beat Whitbread's score of -0.39 indicating that InterContinental Hotels Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Whitbread	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
InterContinental Hotels Group	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do analysts prefer WTB or IHG?

Whitbread currently has a consensus target price of GBX 2,860, indicating a potential upside of 13.31%. InterContinental Hotels Group has a consensus target price of GBX 6,159, indicating a potential downside of 18.77%. Given Whitbread's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Whitbread is more favorable than InterContinental Hotels Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Whitbread	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
InterContinental Hotels Group	2 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83

Which has more volatility and risk, WTB or IHG?

Whitbread has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, InterContinental Hotels Group has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is WTB or IHG more profitable?

InterContinental Hotels Group has a net margin of 14.94% compared to Whitbread's net margin of 8.08%. Whitbread's return on equity of 6.83% beat InterContinental Hotels Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Whitbread	8.08%	6.83%	4.28%
InterContinental Hotels Group	14.94%	-30.72%	14.12%

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, WTB or IHG?

InterContinental Hotels Group has higher revenue and earnings than Whitbread. Whitbread is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than InterContinental Hotels Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Whitbread	£2.90B	1.55	£234.46M	£129.31	19.52
InterContinental Hotels Group	£5.19B	2.93	£775.45M	£304.68	24.88

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in WTB or IHG?

Whitbread received 463 more outperform votes than InterContinental Hotels Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.89% of users gave Whitbread an outperform vote while only 50.29% of users gave InterContinental Hotels Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Whitbread	Outperform Votes 890 71.89%	Underperform Votes 348 28.11%
InterContinental Hotels Group	Outperform Votes 427 50.29%	Underperform Votes 422 49.71%

Summary

InterContinental Hotels Group beats Whitbread on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.