A day after Flight Centre shares hit a 15-month high on the back of improved profit guidance, analysts at Citi have cut the stock to a sell, saying growth opportunities for the travel group are limited.

Citi analyst Bryan Raymond said Flight Centre faces pressure from potentially weak growth in airfares and dwindling consumer demand, factors he said made the company’s current share price optimistic.

“The weak consumer is an emerging concern for Flight Centre’s volume growth,” Raymond said in a report.

Raymond said slow income growth and rising household bills could be impacting on the ability of Australians to spend money on travel, particularly to long-haul destinations such as North America and Europe.

He said that could mean some consumers switching to travel within Australia or to cheaper overseas destinations such as Bali and Thailand.

The analyst put a target price of $40 on Flight Centre shares and cut his recommendation to a sell, while the stock was down 1.6 per cent at $43.40 at 1525 AEST on Thursday.

Flight Centre shares closed at $44.10 on Wednesday after the company announced it will likely hit a record $20 billion in sales for 2016/17, helped by a strong second-half performance for its North American business.

Flight Centre expects underlying full-year profit before tax of between $325 million and $330 million, up from its previous forecast of $300 million to $330 million but still lower than the $352 million achieved in 2015/16.

On Friday, the Travel group announced it has acquired a Mexican travel operator and a Thailand-based hotel operator.

The acquisitions include Olympus Tours, which operates in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, and Bespoke Hospitality Management Asia, which manages 14 hotels in Thailand and has another 19 properties under development.

The Olympus buy will give Flight Centre a presence in the Americas destination management market, while the Thai acquisition provides a low-risk entry into the hotel management sector, managing director Graham Turner said in a statement on Friday.

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