La Quinta Holdings Inc. (NYSE : LQ)
La Quinta Holdings Inc. (LQ), a company that owns, operates and franchises hotels announced that President and CEO, Wayne Goldberg, will be stepping down from his position under mutual terms with the Board of Directors. The company also announced that it will name its Chief Financial Officer Keith Cline as interim President and CEO until it finds a permanent replacement.
La Quinta Holdings Inc. Chairman of the Board Comments
“La Quinta has an exceptionally strong and experienced management team in place to continue the Company’s robust franchise growth, deliver the outstanding experiences its guests have come to expect, and drive shareholder value,” said Mitesh Shah, Chairman of the Board. “We appreciate Wayne’s more than 15 years of service to La Quinta, during which time he helped the Company reach many milestones, along with guiding the Company through its successful initial public offering. The Board has confidence in the Company’s management team to execute their strategic plan and we know that Keith will continue to build on La Quinta’s unique culture of innovation and customer service.” PR Newswire
Interim CEO Comments :
“We will continue to execute our growth strategy through our capital light franchising business, optimize the value of our owned hotel portfolio, and ensure that the La Quinta brand remains a leader in the midscale and upper midscale segments of the lodging industry,” Mr. Cline said. PR Newswire
LQ Technical Analysis
LQ gapped down in price Friday to $15.94 down from the prior day’s close of $18.97 which is a 16% decrease in price based on news of CEO stepping down. Taking a look at the daily chart, we can see the stock is trading at an all time low, as it has broken through its previous low of $16.02 back on May 8, 2014. We can see that the stock has been on a steep decline since July 20 when it traded at $24.05. The stock is trading down on heavy volume almost 4 times the normal daily trading volume. I see no reason why the stock will not continue with the downward move. The stock did reach pre market lows of $15.74. For trading purpose, I would be looking to go short at $15.90 looking for a move down through the pre market lows. My stop loss would be $16.10 fearing anything above that and the stock may start to rebound and fill in the gap down.
Company Profile
La Quinta Holdings Inc. owns, operates, and franchises select-service hotels under the La Quinta brand. It serves the upper-midscale and midscale segments. As of May 7, 2015, the company had approximately 870 hotels with approximately 86,000 rooms under the La Quinta Inn & Suites, La Quinta Inn, and LQ Hotel brands in 47 states of the United States, as well as in Canada, Mexico, and Honduras. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas. Yahoo Finance
