Yahoo Finance Hilton (HLT) Expands Footprint in Florida With Home2 Suites
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.’s HLT Hilton Santa Rosa Beach along with St. Joe Company opened a new hotel, Home2 Suites, in Santa Rosa Beach, FL. This is the third property out of the five properties that are set to start operations in the first half of 2023.
The 107-suite hotel offers a variety of facilities including a business center, a pool, a fitness center, an outdoor lounge with a fire pit along with free standard Wi-Fi. The vicinity of the hotel includes a few tourist attractions like the Scenic Highway 30A corridor, Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, and the area's pristine white-sand beaches.
The company is optimistic about demand for the new property based on the tourist attractions South Walton has to offer. The hotel’s exceptional location and demand for convenient tourist accommodation will drive growth.
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Shares of HLT inched up 0.3% after the trading session on Jun 5. The stock has risen 12.8% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks Hotels and Motels industry’s growth of 12.4%.
Expansion Initiatives Aid Hilton
In a bid to maintain its position as the fastest-growing global hospitality company, Hilton continues to drive unit growth. Its broad geographic diversity lowers the effect of volatility in individual markets. More than half of the company’s pipeline is located outside the United States. During first-quarter 2023, Hilton opened 64 new hotels and achieved net unit growth of nearly 5,300 rooms. During the quarter, the company unveiled its 100th Tapestry Collection by Hilton and announced the opening of its 500th hotel in China. As of Mar 31, 2023, Hilton's development pipeline comprised 2,930 hotels, with nearly 428,100 rooms across 116 countries and territories, including 30 countries and territories where it currently has no running hotels. For 2023, the company expects net unit growth in the range of 5-5.5%.
During the first quarter of 2023, the company reported solid expansion of Hilton Garden Inn with 14 new signings across six countries and announced the opening of the Canopy Toronto Yorkville. In April 2023, the company announced the signing of the Waldorf Astoria Jaipur in India.
HLT is also focusing on hotel conversion opportunities to mitigate the impact of construction delays caused by the pandemic. The company has signed conversion deals with Curio and Tapestry, covering destinations like the Galapagos Islands, San Sebastian, Spain, Maui and Sonoma County, CA. In first quarter of 2023, conversion signings were up 24% on a year-over-year basis. The upside was backed by the rollout of its new brand launch, Spark by Hilton.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Hilton currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Some better-ranked stocks from the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector include Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. RCL, Skechers U.S.A., Inc. SKX and Crocs, Inc. CROX.
Royal Caribbean Cruises presently sports a Zacks Rank #1. RCL has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 26.4%, on average. The stock has increased 77.2% in the year-to-date period.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RCL’s 2023 sales and earnings per share (EPS) indicates a rise of 48.5% and 162.8%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s levels.
Skechers currently sports a Zacks Rank #1. SKX delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 18.8%, on average. Shares of the company have increased 23% in the year-to-date period.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SKX’s 2023 sales and EPS indicates a rise of 7.8% and 31.9%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s levels.
Crocs currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). CROX has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 19.6%, on average. Shares of the company have increased 1.1% in the year-to-date period.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CROX’s 2023 sales and EPS indicates a rise of 13.2% and 5.7%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s levels.
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Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Skechers U.S.A., Inc. (SKX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
