Marriott tops profit and revenue expectations as RevPAR tops pre-pandemic levels

Marriott International Inc. reported Thursday third-quarter profit and revenue that topped expectations, as revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose above 2019 levels. The hotel operator's stock was still inactive in the premarket. Net income jumped to $630 million, or $1.94 a share, from $220 million, or 67 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share rose to $1.69 from 99 cents and beat the FactSet consensus of $1.68. Total revenue grew 34.6% to $5.31 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $5.30 billion. RevPAR in the U.S. and Canada for the quarter was 3.5% above pre-pandemic 2019 levels, while RevPar for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) was 10% above 2019 levels, as a strong dollar and increase in cross-border travel boosted demand. Globally, RevPAR was 2% above 2019 levels. "While we are carefully monitoring macroeconomic trends, bookings across all our customer segments remain strong, contributing to the ongoing momentum in our business," said Chief Executive Anthony Capuano. "We expect continued demand growth around the world in the fourth quarter and anticipate that global RevPAR could increase 2 percent to 4 percent compared to 2019." The stock has slipped 4.0% over the past three months while the S&P 500 has dropped 9.5%.

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