New York  London  GMT  Tokyo  Singapore 
Zacks Investment Research

Marriott Sell Rating Maintained

By Zacks Investment Research on December 31, 2008 | More Posts By Zacks Investment Research | Author's Website

We maintain our Sell rating on shares of Marriott International (MAR). The operating environment in the lodging sector has weakened substantially in recent quarters. Additionally, the company’s timeshare segment is struggling, with sales down and credit market turmoil preventing the company from completing an expected note sale.

Given our forecast for negative earnings growth in 2009, along with the ongoing uncertainty regarding the state of the economy and its potential impact on Marriott’s lodging and timeshare businesses, we rate the shares a Sell at this time.

Marriott’s low-end properties have experienced the greatest level of operating challenges to this point of the current downturn. The higher-end market as outperformed to this point, as group business remains relatively steady and consumers have yet to “trade down” to lower-cost chains. On the positive side, the lodging industry has shown a willingness to maintain average daily rates (ADR) to this point in the downturn.

Our $15.00 six-month target price equates to an EPS multiple of approximately 12.0x our 2009 estimate, and roughly 7.7x our 2009 EBITDA estimate.

If you like this article please...
Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by Email Email This Post To A Friend Email This Post To A Friend

Leave A Comment :

Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Subscribe to comments via email
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.
Opinions From Our Contributors
Commodities Financials Exchange Traded Funds
Stocks Forex Economy



HEADLINES
UPCOMING EVENTS
In 11 hrs: NZD Visitor Arrivals (OCT)
In 14 hrs: AUD New Motor Vehicle Sales (MoM) (OCT)
In 14 hrs: AUD New Motor Vehicle Sales (YoY) (OCT)
In 18 hrs: JPY Supermarket Sales (YoY) (OCT)
In 21 hrs: EUR French Purchasing Manager Index Services (NOV P)
Enter Your Email Address
Theme By: WordPress Theme Shop