Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index rises 0.2% in July

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index rose 0.2% in July to 4,874. Year to date through July, the stock index was down 0.3%. 

“Both the hotel brands and hotel REITs underperformed their benchmarks again in July, but the sub-indices were up slightly in absolute terms during the month,” said Michael Bellisario, senior hotel research analyst and VP at Baird. “While investors were less focused on changes in interest rates and the U.S. Dollar in July relative to the prior month, a continued lack of a material RevPAR growth reacceleration has caused investor optimism to moderate a bit, which has weighed on hotel stock price performance recently.”

“Market activity was more aligned with performance results in the sector,” said Amanda Hite, STR’s president and CEO. “With Q2 earnings calls underway, it is clear that the hotel industry, after taking a ‘breather’ in 2016 and 2017, is now reaccelerating its pace of growth. Reaching 100 consecutive months of RevPAR growth in June was just another outward sign of strong fundamentals. We hear from our clients and data partners that group demand is healthy, and continued strength in the corporate sector leads to confidence in demand and ADR growth. We will present an upward revision to our forecast later this month at the Hotel Data Conference, which is yet another signal of a robust industry.”

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index fell behind the performance of the S&P 500 (+3.6%) and the MSCI US REIT Index (+0.5%).

The Hotel Brand sub-index increased 0.3% from June to 7,138, while the Hotel REIT sub-index grew 0.1% to 1,772.