“Hotels Offering Free Rooms to Cancer Patients” plus 3 more |
- Hotels Offering Free Rooms to Cancer Patients
- Host Hotels Acquires London Hotel
- Earnings Scorecard: Host Hotels
- Corporate Lodging Consultants Delivers Savings on Business Lodging
| Hotels Offering Free Rooms to Cancer Patients Posted: 26 Jul 2010 03:25 PM PDT Kristen Guilfoos Amarillo, Texas - Hotels in Amarillo are working to ease the financial burden of having cancer. In some cases, cancer costs can easily climb well past $100,000. But for many here in the Panhandle, you have to tack on an extra expense... traveling to Amarillo, and paying to stay somewhere when you get here. Since the cancer centers here are pretty much the only option for outlying areas, they have no choice but to make the trip. Ryan Parnell with Harrington Cancer Center says, "We have patients that come to us from as far south as Plainview, all the way up to the Guymon area. We serve the full 26 counties of the Panhandle, plus Southeast Kansas and Western Oklahoma." 25 Amarillo hotels are coming together to provide those people with free rooms while they're in town seeing doctors or getting treatments. As long as they've traveled farther than 50 miles, the hotel room is there for as long as they need it. It's a brand new effort put together by the Panhandle Hotel and Lodging Association, along with the American Cancer Society. For more information, you can log onto www.cancer.org.
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| Host Hotels Acquires London Hotel Posted: 26 Jul 2010 07:48 AM PDT , On Monday July 26, 2010, 10:48 am EDT Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: HST - News), the largest lodging real estate investment trust (REIT) in the U.S., has recently acquired Le Meridien Piccadilly, a premium luxury hotel in London, England, for $96.7 million. The purchase price includes the assumption of a $50 million mortgage loan on the property. The 266-room hotel was owned by Starman Hotels, a joint venture between the affiliates of Starwood Capital Group and Lehman Brothers. Founded in 1991, Starwood Capital Group is a privately-held global investment firm focusing primarily on real estate assets. During third quarter 2010, Host Hotels also acquired W Union Square, a premium luxury hotel in New York, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was made through a joint venture in which Host Hotels had a majority stake. In addition, Host Hotels acquired a 424-room hotel in Chicago with 28,000 square feet of meeting space for approximately $165 million. Furthermore, in July 2010, a joint venture of the company in Asia reached an agreement to develop seven properties in three major cities in India, namely Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi. The total cost of developing the project spanning 1,750 rooms is expected to be approximately $325 million. Host Hotels anticipates the gradual revival of the overall economy to have a positive impact on its operating results in 2010, with comparable hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR) expected to increase in the range of 4% to 5.5% for the full year. Host Hotels had earlier reported second quarter 2010 FFO (funds from operations) of $151 million or 23 cents per share, compared to $68 million or 12 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter. Funds from operations, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income. The second quarter FFO marginally beat the Zacks Consensus estimate by a penny. With strong second quarter results, Host Hotels increased its FFO guidance for 2010 in the range of 66 cents to 70 cents per share, up from its earlier guidance of 58 cents to 65 cents. We maintain our Neutral rating on Host Hotels with a Zacks #2 Rank, which translates into a short-term Buy recommendation. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |||||||||||||||
| Earnings Scorecard: Host Hotels Posted: 26 Jul 2010 06:34 AM PDT , On Monday July 26, 2010, 9:34 am EDT Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: HST - News), the largest lodging real estate investment trust (REIT) in the U.S., reported second quarter fiscal 2010 FFO (funds from operations) of 23 cents per share that marginally exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. Fund from operations, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.
We cover below the results of the recent earnings announcement, subsequent analyst estimate revisions and the Zacks ratings for the short-term and long-term outlook for the stock.
Earnings Report Review
During the second quarter fiscal 2010, total revenue increased 6% to $1.1 billion compared with the year-earlier quarter. Comparable hotel revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 8.1% during the quarter, driven by a rise in occupancy, partially offset by a fall in average daily rates. The increase in RevPAR was primarily due to an 8.1% increase in transient demand along with a 2.8% improvement in average room rate, the first such growth rate witnessed since the second quarter 2008.
(Read our full coverage on this earnings report: Host Hotels Marginally Beats)
Earnings Estimate Revisions- Overview
Fiscal earnings estimates have moved up for Host Hotels since the earnings release, meaning that analysts were optimistic about the long-term performance of the company. Let's dig into the earnings estimate details.
Agreement of Estimate Revisions
In the last seven days, fiscal 2010 earnings estimates have been increased by 4 out of 9 analysts covering the stock, while none has decreased the same. Analysts, in general, are in consensus about the long-term outlook for Host Hotels' earnings. For fiscal 2011, 7 out of 17 analysts covering the stock have revised their estimates upward, while none has reduced it. This indicates a positive directional movement for the fiscal year earnings. Host Hotels also anticipates that the gradual revival of the overall economy will positively affect its operating results in 2010, with comparable hotel RevPAR expected to increase in the range of 4% to 5.5% for the full year.
Magnitude of Estimate Revisions
Earnings estimates for fiscal 2010 nudged up by a penny from 66 cents to 67 cents since the earnings announcement. With positive results during the reported quarter, Host Hotels has also increased its FFO guidance for 2010 in the range of 66 cents to 70 cents per share, up from its earlier guidance of 58 cents to 65 cents. For fiscal 2011, earnings estimates have moved up 3 cents from 86 cents to 89 cents. This is an encouraging news for the company.
Moving Forward
The long-term earnings estimate picture of Host Hotels is positive. Host Hotels is the largest lodging REIT with high quality lodging assets in geographically diverse locations. Over the years, the company has executed a focused and disciplined long-term strategic plan to acquire high quality lodging assets in hard-to-replicate areas, which have the potential for significant capital appreciation.
However, the continuous acquisition spree of Host Hotels involves significant upfront operating expenses with limited near-term profitability. New hotels usually go through longer gestation to create revenues and are a drag on performance till they start generating healthy margins.
Currently, we maintain our Neutral rating on Host Hotels with a Zacks #2 Rank, which translates into a short-term 'Buy' recommendation and indicates that the stock is expected to out perform the overall U.S. equity market for the next 1-3 months.
About Earnings Estimate Scorecard
Len Zacks, PhD in mathematics from MIT, proved over 30 years ago that earnings estimate revisions are the most powerful force impacting stock prices. He turned this ground breaking discovery into two of the most celebrating stock rating systems in use today. The Zacks Rank for stock trading in a 1 to 3 month time horizon and the Zacks Recommendation for long-term investing (6+ months). These "Earnings Estimate Scorecard articles help analyze the important aspects of estimate revisions for each stock after their quarterly earnings announcements. Learn more about earnings estimates and our proven stock ratings at http://www.zacks.com/education/. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |||||||||||||||
| Corporate Lodging Consultants Delivers Savings on Business Lodging Posted: 26 Jul 2010 05:10 AM PDT Press Release Source: Corporate Lodging Consultants On Monday July 26, 2010, 8:10 am EDT WICHITA, Kan., July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Corporate Lodging Consultants (CLC), a leading negotiator of workforce lodging rates, will bring its travel savings and solutions to the 2010 National Business Travel Association's International Convention and Exposition in Houston, Texas, Aug. 8-11. With travel costs ranking as most companies' second or third-largest controllable expense, CLC delivers hotel savings to companies whose crews, drivers, sales reps and other employees travel the nation's highways on business. CLC uses its consolidated purchasing power of 9 million room nights a year at over 10,000 hotels, obtaining rates that typically are 20% to 40% less than customers can get on their own. "Our savings card and workforce travel solutions provide deep discounts and improve visibility to lodging spend for thousands of companies of all sizes," said Chris Stansbury, CLC senior vice president of Sales. "CLC particularly meets the needs of workforce travelers who may fall outside the profile of the typical employee who books travel through a global distribution system." Larger companies with significant travel benefit from a broad suite of workforce travel solutions that are available based on company needs. Small to medium-size companies can take advantage of CLC's savings card and receive similar savings enjoyed by larger organizations. Businesses that want to start saving on business travel can call (866) 362-0739, e-mail sales@corplodging.com or visit CLC Booth 2167 during the NBTA Convention and Expo. Businesses ready to sign up for the savings cards program can use key code NBTA for additional savings. CLC also will present its workforce travel solutions at the 2010 Coal Gen in Pittsburgh, Pa., Aug 10-12, staffing Booth 1517. Corporate Lodging Consultants (http://www.corplodging.com) is a division of FleetCor, the Global Fleet Card Company. CLC has more than 30 years experience as a leading provider of lodging management programs to businesses, serving thousands of clients in North America. CLC's clients purchase more than 9 million room nights annually across CLC's proprietary network of thousands of hotels.
This press release was issued through eReleases(R). For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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