Yahoo Finance What's in the Offing for Host Hotels (HST) in Q2 Earnings?
Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. HST is scheduled to release second-quarter 2024 earnings results on Jul 31, after market close. The quarterly results are likely to display year-over-year growth in revenues and funds from operations (FFO) per share.
In the previous quarter, this Bethesda, MD-based lodging real estate investment trust (REIT) outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in terms of adjusted FFO per share. Results reflected a year-over-year rise in revenues.
Over the trailing four quarters, Host Hotels’ adjusted FFO per share surpassed estimates on two occasions, missed on one occasion and met in the remaining period, the average beat being 5.7%. The graph below depicts this surprise history:
Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. Quote
Factors at Play
Host Hotels enjoys a portfolio of luxury and upper-scale hotels across the top U.S. Markets and the Sunbelt region. These properties are strategically located in central business districts of major cities with proximity to airports and resort/conference destinations, which drives demand.
The improvement in group business demand and business transient demand — led by the healthy demand from small and medium-sized businesses — have aided hotel revenue per available (RevPAR) growth over the past few quarters. This trend is likely to have continued in the second quarter.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly RevPAR stands at $227.8, indicating an increase of 1.2% from the year-ago quarter.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HST’s quarterly revenues is presently pegged at $1.47 billion, implying growth of 5.4% from the prior-year period’s reported figure.
Host Hotels’ strategic capital allocations to improve its portfolio quality and strengthen its position in the United States, where it has a greater scale and competitive advantage, are likely to have given it an edge and drive margin expansion.
The company’s activities during the to-be-reported quarter were adequate to garner analysts’ confidence. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FFO per share has been revised a cent upward to 56 cents in the past two months. Moreover, the figure implies a 5.7% rise from the year-ago reported number.
However, the consensus mark for the average occupancy rate in the second quarter is pegged at 72.95%, suggesting a decline from the prior-year quarter’s reported figure of 74.20%.
A high interest rate environment is expected to have been a spoilsport. We expect second-quarter 2024 interest expenses to rise 1.4% year over year.
What Our Quantitative Model Predicts
Our proven model does not conclusively predict a surprise in terms of FFO per share for Host Hotels this season. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an FFO beat, which is not the case here.
Host Hotels currently has an Earnings ESP of -0.32% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Stocks That Warrant a Look
Here are two stocks from the broader REIT sector — American Tower AMT and Apple Hospitality REIT, Inc. APLE — that you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to report a surprise this quarter.
American Tower, scheduled to report quarterly numbers on Jul 30, has an Earnings ESP of +0.71% and carries a Zacks Rank of 2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Apple Hospitality is slated to report quarterly numbers on Aug 5. APLE has an Earnings ESP of +12.21% and carries a Zacks Rank of 2 presently.
Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar.
Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.
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