Hilton Stock Soars As Q4 Beats Estimates Amid Strength In Revenue Per Available Room

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. HLT shares are trading slightly higher on Thursday after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat the Street consensus.

• Q4 adjusted earnings per share of $1.76, beating the street view of $1.68.
• Quarterly sales of $2.783 billion outpaced the analyst consensus estimate of $2.77 billion.
• 22,600 rooms added to Hilton’s system, resulting in 98,400 room openings for the full year.
• This contributed to net unit growth of 7.3% from Dec. 31, 2023.
• System-wide comparable Revenue Per Available Room, or RevPAR, in the quarter under review increased 3.5% year over year. Management and franchise fee revenues increased 4.8%.

CEO Christopher J. Nassetta said all segments drove RevPAR outperformance. Nassetta also cited strong trends in leisure occupancy, as well as continued growth in business transient and group results.

HIlton expects “favorable trends to continue into 2025,” Nassetta said.

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“We also delivered the highest number of approvals, construction starts and openings in our history in 2024,” he added.

Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter under review totaled $858 million, higher than $803 million in the year-ago period.

As of Dec. 31, the company has $11.2 billion of debt outstanding.

Outlook: Hilton expects first-quarter adjusted EPS to be between $1.57 and $1.63, below the $1.67 estimate.

Hilton has announced that it expects its first quarter system-wide RevPAR to increase by 2.5% to 3.5% year-over-year on a currency-neutral basis.

“With a development pipeline of nearly half a million rooms, we are confident that we are well positioned to deliver net unit growth between 6% and 7% in 2025,” the CEO said.

For 2025, it anticipates adjusted EPS of $7.71 to $7.82, higher than the $7.04 estimate. Additionally, the company has projected net unit growth for the full fiscal year 2025 (FY25) to be between 6% and 7%.

Price Action: HLT shares are trading higher by 5.72% to $272.60 at last check Thursday.

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