HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee and MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin—The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index ended May with a 1.2-percent increase to 2,380. The index is down 0.7 percent year-to-date 2011. The Hotel Stock Index ended 2010 at 2,364.
Robert W. Baird & Co. (Baird) and STR partnered to create the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index—the first widely available U.S. hotel stock index in the hotel industry. The index combines Baird’s financial markets expertise, the data processing of STR and the industry’s leading news website, HotelNewsNow.com.
The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index outperformed the S&P 500 and the RMZ for the first time this year. The S&P ended May with a 1.4-percent decrease and the RMZ ended the month with a 1.0-percent increase. The month’s outperformance was aided by a 7.1-percent increase in shares of Marriott International, the index’s largest component.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the economy, so it is a good sign that the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index stayed positive in May,” said Randy Smith, chairman and cofounder of STR. “The U.S. hotel industry is on a steady road to recovery and we expect a busy summer travel season to aid the recovery. We believe solid gains in the industry’s performance will further bolster investor interest in the lodging sector.”
“Investors have become wary of a second half 2011 slowdown, but declining interest rates have generally aided real estate stocks' performance,” said David Loeb, senior hotel research analyst and managing director at Baird. “Specifically, hotel fundamentals remain strong and the outlook for continued growth is positive, despite several macroeconomic headwinds. We expect continued demand growth and minimal new supply to lead to occupancy gains; pricing gains should accelerate as the year progresses which should fuel hotel share price gains.”
About the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index
The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index was set to equal 1000 on 1 January 2000, as its starting point. The Index reached its peak of 3178 on 5 July 2007. The Index’s lowest point occurred on 6 March 2009, when it dropped to 573.
The Index is available exclusively on www.hotelstockindex.com and www.HotelNewsNow.com. The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index is a co-branded index created by Robert W. Baird & Co. (Baird) and Smith Travel Research, Inc. (STR). The market-cap weighted Index is comprised of 15 of the largest market capitalization hotel companies publicly traded on a U.S. exchange and attempts to characterize the performance of hotel stocks. The Index is maintained by Baird and is hosted on HotelNewsNow.com. The Index is not actively managed and a direct investment cannot be made in it.
The current companies that comprise the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index: Ashford Hospitality Trust, Choice Hotels International, DiamondRock Hospitality, Hersha Hospitality Trust, Hospitality Properties Trust, Host Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group, LaSalle Hotel Properties, Marriott International, Orient-Express Hotels, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Sunstone Hotel Investors and Wyndham Worldwide.
Media Contacts:
Jeff Higley
VP, Digital Media & Communications
jeff@str.com
+1 (615) 824-8664 ext. 3318
Rachael Spann Urie
Communications Coordinator
rurie@str.com
+1 (615) 824-8664 ext. 3305
Angela Pittman Taylor
Baird Public Relations
apittmantaylor@rwbaird.com
+1 (414) 765-7250
