Marriott International Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) reported its first-quarter financial results before the opening bell on Monday. The hotel chain said that it had $0.26 in earnings per share (EPS) and $4.68 billion in revenue, which compares with consensus estimates of $0.91 in EPS and $4.27 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.41 in EPS and $5.01 billion in revenue.
In the 2020 first quarter, worldwide revenue per available room (RevPAR) declined 22.5% (a 22.7% decline using actual dollars). North American RevPAR declined 19.5% (a 19.5% decline in actual dollars) and international RevPAR declined 30.4% (a 31.3% decline in actual dollars).
The company added more than 14,500 rooms globally during the first quarter, including nearly 2,100 rooms converted from competitor brands and roughly 7,200 rooms in international markets. Net rooms grew 4.4% from a year ago.
At quarter-end, Marriott’s total debt was $12.23 billion and cash balances totaled $1.76 billion. That compared to $10.94 billion in debt and $225 million of cash at year-end 2019.
Arne M. Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott, commented:
In the last few months we have seen the impact of COVID-19 spread throughout our business in an unprecedented way. Worldwide RevPAR began the year with a strong 4.6 percent growth rate for January, excluding Greater China, where COVID-19 was already impacting results. For the first two months of the year, worldwide RevPAR grew 3.2 percent, excluding the Asia Pacific region. As the pandemic moved around the world, we saw global RevPAR fall sharply and, in April, worldwide RevPAR declined approximately 90 percent. Currently, roughly a quarter of our worldwide hotels are closed.
Marriott stock traded down more than 5% early Monday to $82.00, a 52-week low. The 52-week is $88.50, but the consensus price target is $98.00.
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