J.P. Morgan Comments On Marriott 2Q11 Earnings

According to J.P. Morgan, Marriott International MAR will be the first lodging company to report 2Q11 earnings on July 13. J.P. Morgan said that it believes that MAR will report in-line operating trends (RevPAR), with the potential for 2011 and 2012 consensus EPS to move higher depending on how MAR talks about future (and potentially sizable) share buybacks. “We are not expecting any surprises for MAR's 2H11 outlook, though we think MAR's 3Q11 RevPAR growth will show some deceleration as its 3Q11 will have more leisure/less business and group travel, but would expect RevPAR growth to accelerate as we go into September, a seasonally stronger period for group and individual business transient travel. We stay Overweight here on MAR and other lodging C-corp. stocks, given low investor expectations (still), undemanding valuation (on 2012E EV/EBITDA), low domestic supply growth, and international growth prospects.” Marriott International closed yesterday at $36.62.