The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index rose 6.8% in February to 4,684. Year to date through the first two months of 2019, the index was up 15.1%.
“Hotel stocks continued their rebound in February in conjunction with further improvement in broader market sentiment,” said Michael Bellisario, senior hotel research analyst and VP at Baird. “The hotel REITs and the hotel brands posted gains of 3.9% and 8.3%, respectively, and both sub-indices outperformed their benchmarks. With a more stable industry backdrop following some weakness experienced in January and companies’ full-year 2019 guidance ranges in place, investors’ focus has shifted more toward balancing growth outlooks and current valuations.”
“We’ve now seen two straight months with investor sentiment on an upward trajectory even as hotel performance growth remains slow,” said Amanda Hite, STR’s president and CEO. “It will be interesting to see if investors remain bullish on hotel stocks with continued flat occupancy and subdued rate growth moving forward. We also continue to monitor the number of open positions in ‘accommodations and food service’ as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics—that number is at roughly 1 million and growing. This will put upward pressure on wage and labor costs, which, coupled with stunted ADR growth, will impact profitability.”
The increase in the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index surpassed the S&P 500 (+3.0%) and the MSCI US REIT Index (+0.4%).
The Hotel Brand sub-index jumped 8.3% from January to 7,036, while the Hotel REIT sub-index increased 3.9% to 1,624.
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