Ashford Hospitality Trust Slashes Board Compensation

The DJIA jumped 601 points on Friday while Nasdaq finally had a real decent rebound, up 303 while the S&P 500 was up 93 points. The 10-year treasury yield was down -.05 to 42.3%. Lodging stocks were mixed. BHR was the big winner, up 10% while AHT was down -6% and SOND fell another -5%.

DiamondRock Hospitality reported a strong 4Q earnings beat while giving a 2025 guide that was better than expected. RevPAR growth in 4Q was a solid 5.4%. No shares were repurchased in 4Q but they did increase the quarterly dividend to $0.08 per share.

Braemar Hotels reported positive RevPAR growth of 1.9% for 4Q, the first since the first quarter of 2023. BHR said January RevPAR was sensational, up 13%. They are seeing group RevPAR pacing at a +8% pace. BHR said they expect to exercise their franchise conversion option at the Sofitel Chicago with Remington Hotels taking over the management agreement in May of this year.

Barclays upped their target price on Hilton Grand Vacations to $45 from $41 while slashing their target price on Marriott Vacations to $97 from $116. They maintained HGV at Equal Weight and VAC at Overweight. Mizuho upped their HGV target price to $60 from $55 while cutting VAC’s price target to $112 from $120. Mizuho maintained Outperform ratings on both. Jefferies cut their target price on VAC to $85 from $94 while maintaining their Hold rating. Jefferies also maintained their Underweight rating on Choice Hotels International. They upped their target price to $139 from $135.

Ashford Hospitality Trust announced their Board of Directors approved significant reductions to board and manageme