Xenia Hotels & Resorts

Baird picked the hotel real-estate investment trust Xenia Hotels & Resorts as their Best Idea for 2023. The Wall Street Journal published a very positive article on Hilton , including an interview with CEO Chris Nassetta . Pyramid Global Hospitality closed the acquisition of the operating division of Provenance Hotels .

On Friday lodging stocks ended higher: BHR rose 12% while AINC was up 7%. SOND fell -7% on the day. Raymond James downgraded Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and Xenia Hotels & Resorts to Market Perform from Outperform while cutting Sunstone Hotel Investors to Underperform from Market Perform. Ryman Hospitality also announced they were boosting their quarterly dividend, declaring the 4Q dividend of $0.25 per share.

Chatham Lodging Trust announced its board of trustees reinstated their common dividend, announcing a fourth-quarter common share dividend of $0.07 per common share. Park Hotels & Resorts announced a $0.25 per share fourth-quarter cash dividend. $0.12 per share of that represents the fourth quarter payment based on 2022 results. Lodging stocks were modestly higher. The only big mover of note was MCG , up 8%.

Morgan Stanley re-launched coverage on the lodging sector, saying they prefer C-Corps over REITs . Truist updated their estimates and price targets on some hotel names in their coverage. According to the NY Daily News, more than 10,000 Airbnb listings for short-term rentals in New York City are likely to disappear when tight new housing rules take effect next year.

MCG and INN both were up 6% while SVC and SLNA were up 5% each. SOND fell -5% on the day. Xenia Hotels & Resorts announced its board of directors authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $100 million of the company’s outstanding common shares. With the additional authorization U.S. lodging REIT management teams did express concerns about cracks in demand forming with technology customers soon after recent layoff announcements.

Let’s go backwards to give you an overview of today’s market. The 10-year treasury yield plunged 0.32 to 3.83%. That is a nearly 8% drop in the yield on a modestly better CPI report. Vacasa reported 3Q results that went over as well with investors as their weak fourth quarter guidance. The LWHA Q3 2022 Major U.S. Hotel Sales Survey includes 119 single asset sale transactions over $10 million which totaled roughly $3.7 billion.

DiamondRock Hospitality reported 3Q results, beating the preliminary results they announced two weeks ago. Jefferies cut its rating on Xenia Hotels & Resorts to Hold from Buy. Lodging stocks were mixed. SLNA plunged another -20%, quickly becoming the biggest disaster in a long line of SPAC disappointments in the past year

Lodging stocks were down before the Fed decision to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points and conference call but the selling accelerated after, led by the REITs, not surprisingly. Investors did not take the earnings reports from Airbnb, Ashford Hospitality Trust or Xenia Hotels & Resorts very well. Meanwhile STR reported for the week ended 10/29, US hotel RevPAR was up 33.5% year over year.

Lodging stocks were mixed. AINC was up 5% while the biggest mover was to the downside with VCSA falling -14%. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Airbnb to $105 from $125. MS maintained their Equal Weight rating. Xenia Hotels & Resorts sold the 115-room Celebration Hotel to Vision Hospitality Group .

The  DJIA  fell 139 points on Friday while  Nasdaq  was down 104, the  S&P 500  fell 28 points and the  10-year treasury yield  was down .01 to 3.45%. Citigroup cut its rating on IHG Hotels & Resorts to Sell from Neutral. Citi believes the incomplete recovery in corporate travel will weigh on IHG’s RevPAR. Berenberg , on the other hand, sees hotels as the top travel play . The brokerage firm says concerns about the hotel industry are overblown and the outlook for RevPAR for 2023 and 2024 will strengthen further.