Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (HOT) Tuesday lifted its earnings per share outlook for full-year 2013, as its profit and revenues for the first quarter beat analysts' consensus. Quarterly earnings reflected mainly a tax benefit in discontinued operations.
Worldwide System-wide revenue per available room or RevPAR, a performance metric in the hotel industry, for same-store hotels, increased 5 percent in constant dollars. At actual dollars, the increase was 4.6 percent. System-wide RevPAR for same-store hotels in North America increased 6.2 percent in constant dollars.
Worldwide RevPAR for Starwood same-store owned hotels grew 3.4 percent in constant dollars.
Worldwide same-store company-operated gross operating profit margins improved about 52 basis points compared to the prior year.
Frits van Paasschen, CEO of the company stated, "We had a solid first quarter across all lines of our business. Our management and franchise fees grew strongly, and despite our sale of 11 hotels, earnings at our owned portfolio exceeded last year's levels, driven by great performance at our North American properties."
In the first quarter, net income attributable to the company climbed to $213 million or $1.09 per share from $128 million or $0.65 per share in the previous year.
The recent-quarter results included a tax benefit of $70 million in discontinued operations, as a result of reversal of a reserve associated with an uncertain tax position related to a previous disposition.
Earnings from continuing operations for the recent quarter was $0.73 per share. Excluding special items, earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.76 for the first quarter of 2013, while the company posted $0.63 per share last year.
On average, 29 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earnings of $0.53 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenues for the quarter fell 10.3 percent to $1.54 billion, but came above analysts' consensus estimate of $1.47 billion.
Looking ahead to the second-quarter, the company anticipates earnings per share, including St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort residential project, to be about $0.70 to $0.73. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $0.72 per share for the second-quarter.
For full-year 2013, the company now expects earnings per share before special items, including Bal Harbour, to be around $2.75 to $2.83, up from the prior outlook of $2.59 to $2.68 per share. Analysts are currently looking for earnings of $2.66 per share for 2013.
HOT closed Monday's regular trading at $62.46 on the NYSE. In the pre-market activity, the shares are up 2.18 percent.
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