Morgan Stanley Upgrades Hilton, Downgrades Marriott

In notes published Wednesday morning, Morgan Stanley made a bit of a pair call, upgrading Hilton Worldwide HLT to Overweight while at the same time downgrading Marriott International MAR shares. The firm's Thomas Allen boosted his price target on Hilton to $27 and set a price target of $64 on Marriott. In the report, Allen stated the industry as a whole is attractive, and Marriott "has outperformed other US Lodging stocks by 14% YTD. While we still see it as one of the cleanest long-term growth stories in Lodging, we move to Equal-weight as we see a more balanced risk-reward in the near-term at these levels.” Additionally, Allen believes, “A combination of strong fundamentals and a deep dive into the strategic value of the Waldorf Astoria lead us to upgrade HLT to Overweight and increase our price target to $27 (22% upside).” Shares of Hilton closed up $0.50, or 2.26 percent, to $22.66 per share. Shares of Marriott closed up $0.11, or 0.19 percent, to $58.11 per share.