Starwood Hotels and Resorts

In its second-to-last quarter as its own company, Starwood beat estimates and impressed the market. Starwood Hotels and Resorts

Skift Take: This continues to be a strong quarter for hotel brands — whether or not they are being acquired by one-time rivals.

— Jason Clampet

Starwood’s first-quarter results beat Wall Street’s view, and the lodging company boosted its full-year earnings forecast.

The owner of Sheraton and St. Regis hotels — which is being purchased by Marriott in a deal worth more than $14 billion — earned $90 million, or 53 cents per share, for the three months ended March 31. The Stamford, Connecticut-based company earned $99 million, or 58 cents per share, a year earlier.

Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 70 cents per share. That easily beat the 58 cents per share that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were calling for.

Revenue totaled $1.4 billion in the period, topping the $1.35 billion that analysts polled by Zacks expected.

Occupancy rose to 67.2 percent from 66.4 percent for systemwide worldwide hotels.

For the second quarter, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. anticipates earnings of about 69 cents to 74 cents per share. It now predicts full-year earnings of approximately $3 to $3.06 per share. The chain’s prior outlook was for $2.74 to $2.84 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expect second-quarter earnings of 73 cents per share and full-year earnings of $2.81 per share.

Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research.

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