Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index up 1.3% in April
The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index reported a 1.3-percent increase to 3,294 in April. The index ended 2013 at 3,177.
Robert W. Baird and Co. and STR partnered to create the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index, the first widely available U.S. hotel stock index in the hotel industry. The index combines Baird’s financial markets expertise, the data processing of STR and the up-to-the-minute distribution capabilities of Hotel News Now, the industry’s leading hotel news website.
The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index outperformed the S&P 500 (+0.6 percent) but underperformed the MSCI REIT (RMZ) (+3.2 percent) in April.
“In April, stocks reported a slight increase,” said Randy Smith, co-founder and chairman of STR. “During the first quarter of the year, hotels saw healthy but slowing revenue-per-available-room growth rates (+6.4 percent). Average daily rate also reported growth, rising 3.8 percent. We expect ADR to continue to grow around the same rate going forward.”
“Hotel stocks continue to trade in line with the broader market, while other real estate sectors have outperformed as interest rates approached their 10-month lows,” said David Loeb, senior hotel research analyst and managing director at Baird. “First-quarter earnings have exceeded expectations on strong group trends aided by the holiday shift into April, and investors and management teams remain optimistic that growth will be solid for the remainder of the year.”