Marriott International Slips To Loss In Q1

Marriott International, Inc. (MAR) on Monday reported a loss compared to a profit last year, materially impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic and efforts to contain it. However, adjusted earnings per share topped analysts’ expectations, but annual revenues missed it.

For the first quarter, the hotel chain reported a net loss of $11 million or $0.03 per share, compared to net income of $31 million or $0.09 per share in the year-ago quarter.

The latest quarter’s results include impairment charges of $3 million after-tax $0.01 per share. It also includes restructuring and merger-related charges, cost reimbursement revenue, and reimbursed expenses.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.10 per share, compared to $0.49 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Total revenue for the quarter declined to $2.32 billion from $4.68 billion in the same quarter last year.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.03 per share on revenues of $2.36 billion for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

Comparable system-wide constant dollar revenue per available room or RevPAR declined 46.3 percent worldwide, while it fell 46.1 percent outside North America and 46.3 percent in North America.

Marriott has added more than 134 properties or 23,500 rooms globally during the first quarter, including nearly 7,300 rooms converted from competitor brands and approximately 12,000 rooms in international markets.

At quarter end, Marriott’s global lodging system totaled more than 7,600 properties, with over 1,429,000 rooms.

The company had halted share repurchases in February of 2020 and suspended its quarterly dividend beginning in the second quarter of 2020.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2021, Marriott said consistent with its view a quarter ago, it expects gross room growth could accelerate to approximately 6 percent in 2021. Including deletions, it continues to estimate room distribution to grow 3 to 3.5 percent, net, for the full year.

At quarter end, Marriott’s worldwide development pipeline totaled 2,885 properties and approximately 491,000 rooms, including 1,141 properties with more than 222,000 rooms under construction and 105 properties with roughly 18,000 rooms approved for development, but not yet subject to signed contracts.

The company noted that due to the numerous uncertainties associated with COVID-19, it cannot presently estimate the impact of this unprecedented situation on its future results, which is highly dependent on the severity and duration of the pandemic and its impacts, but expects that COVID-19 will continue to be material to the company’s results.

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