Apple Hospitality REIT

Stock market indices, including the DJIA, Nasdaq, and S&P 500, experienced declines on Friday, while the 10-year treasury yield saw a slight increase. Barclays expects some REITs, such as Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and DiamondRock , to be disproportionately impacted by below-expectation revenue per available room (RevPAR), while they believe Apple Hospitality will outperform. Oppenheimer slashed price targets on several lodging stocks, including Chatham Lodging Trust , RLJ Lodging Trust , Braemar , and Apple Hospitality , while maintaining their Outperform ratings on these companies.

Apple Hospitality and Xenia Hotels were the next up to report earnings. APLE beat expectations and continues to be one of the few hotel REITs reporting EBITDA above 2019 levels. XHR also beat expectations on a higher top line with RevPAR growth of 23.9%. STR reported US lodging data for the week ended April 29. Year over year hotel RevPAR was up 5.6%.

Craig-Hallum initiated coverage of LuxUrban Hotels with a Buy rating and a $10 price target. A New York hotel union reached a deal with hotel owners and operators, boosting the wages of hospitality workers by $7.50 an hour, the largest increase in the union’s 100-year history . Beginning this month, Waldorf Astoria Orlando in Florida will undergo a comprehensive, multi-phase re-imagination expected to debut in December 2023.

Wells Fargo has cut price targets on lodging stocks under coverage due to concerns over regional banks and their impact on the hotel industry. The bank only downgraded two names - Park Hotels and Xenia Hotels - but reduced price targets on many others, including Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt. STR's global "bubble chart" update shows growing momentum in the Asia Pacific region and more than half of markets globally with better than 20% growth in RevPAR versus 2019. Israel, Switzerland, Singapore, the Dominican Republic, and New Zealand led in RevPAR on an actual basis. HEI Hotels & Resorts has taken over management of the Marriott Jacksonville Downtown Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida, which will undergo a comprehensive renovation in the planning stages with completion anticipated in the first quarter of 2024.

STR gave U.S. lodging data for the week ended 3/18. US hotel RevPAR rose 10.4% year over year. When compared with the same week in 2019, US hotel RevPAR was up 20.8%. We can’t tell if the markets genuinely hate U.S. Fed Chief Jerome Powell or if the guy should just have a stand-in for his press conferences. Redburn Partners lowered its rating on InterContinental Hotels Group to Sell. UBS Group downgraded shares of Melia Hotels International from a Buy rating to a Sell rating.

Despite the jitters and dire predictions we have been hearing for getting close to a year, lodging demand remains consistent with any concern of deterioration stemming from headline economic risk not yet manifesting in fundamentals. Baird reported on something we touched on recently, insider buying at lodging companies . A majority of the U.S. corporate travel buyers expect their company’s business travel to ramp up and return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2023

Baird lowered their price target on Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to $86 from $88 while maintaining their Outperform rating. Barclays cut their rating on Hyatt Hotels to Equal Weight from Overweight. They cut their price target to $125 from $130. They upped Hilton to an Overweight rating from Equal Weight. Travel + Leisure Co . announced their upped their quarterly dividend per share to $0.45 per share from $0.40.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Inc . upped their quarterly dividend by 9%, announcing a quarterly cash dividend of $0.35 per share up from the $0.32 a share quarterly dividend they paid during 2022. CoStar said that most Lodging Industry Investment Council members expect full-year lodging real estate transactions in 2023 to exceed the volume in 2022. A joint venture of NewcrestImage and Hospitality Capital Partners completed the acquisition of 11 hotels in seven states with a total of 1,551 rooms.

The earnings parade continues with REITs dominating the past 24 hours. PebbleBrook Hotel Trust reported 4Q results that matched their pre-announcement but gave 1Q guidance that was softer than expected. Sunstone Hotel Investors results came in slightly ahead for 4Q with an extra $10 million insurance gain also put in there. Park Hotels reported strong results even with San Francisco continued weakness. PK said group revenue is back to 83% of pre-pandemic levels.