U.S. hotel chain Marriott International Inc. (MAR), Wednesday reported a lower profit for the fourth-quarter, hurt largely by one-time charges related to spin-off of its timeshare business.
Nonetheless, excluding one-time items, earnings for the quarter improved from last year but fell short of analysts' estimates by a penny on lower-than-anticipated revenues.
Marriott's revenue per available room improved 5.9 percent with North American performance better than rest of the world. Revenue per available room, a key performance metric in the hotel industry, is calculated by multiplying room rate by occupancy rate.
J.W. Marriott, chairman and chief executive officer of Marriott International, said, "Occupancies and room rates improved at our hotels in most markets around the world. We increased our global hotel distribution and spun off our timeshare business as Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp., a new separately traded public company."
Marriott was positive about the company's growth as well as of global lodging industry, as demand steadily increases amid a growing middle class and rapid economic growth in many emerging markets.
Marriott expects first-quarter revenue per available room to grow 5 to 6 percent, and full-year 2012 to increase 5 to 7 percent.
Bethesda, Maryland-headquarter Marriott's profit for the fourth quarter dropped to $141 million or $0.41 per share from $173 million or $0.46 per share last year.
Adjusted earnings, excluding items related to timeshare business spun off, improved to $0.46 from $0.35 per share last year. On average, 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.47 per share for the quarter.
Marriott, which operates Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Residence Inn and Courtyard brands, said revenues for the quarter grew to $3.69 billion from $3.64 billion last year. Analysts estimated revenues of $3.77 billion for the quarter.
Looking forward to the first-quarter, the company expects earnings in a range of $0.26 to $0.30 per share. Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.30 per share for the quarter.
Marriott expects fiscal year 2012 earnings of $1.52 to $1.64 per share. Analysts currently expect earnings of $1.58 per share for fiscal year 2012.
MAR closed Wednesday trading on the NYSE at $34.73, down $0.40 or 1.14%. The stock, however, gained $0.21 or 0.60% in after hours trade.
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