Hilton Expands Presence In North Carolina With New Hotel

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) announced the opening of its innovative hotel brand — Tru by Hilton Burlington in North Carolina. Built in collaboration with Parks Hospitality Group, the new hotel is located at 982 Kirkpatrick Road in close proximity to the Alamance Regional Medical Center and Elon University.

Slated to be the brand’s first hotel in the Piedmont Triad area, the 101-room, five-story hotel will offer guests a range of amenities — including a fitness center, food and beverage options, and advanced technological facilities — thus providing an innovative mid-scale lodging experience to business and leisure travelers.

The move not only reflects Hilton’s efforts to expand its innovative mid-scale lodging portfolio but also shows how it relies on overall expansion to drive top-line growth.

Meanwhile, shares of the company have gained 55.1%, outperforming its industry’s rally of 38.2% in the past year.

Unit Expansion

During the third quarter of 2019, Hilton opened 118 hotels. It achieved a net unit growth of 15,600 rooms, increasing 7% from the prior-year quarter. Notably, the company gained from increased average daily rate and continual unit expansion.

As of Sep 30, 2019, Hilton's development pipeline comprised nearly 2,530 hotels, with roughly 379,000 rooms throughout 111 countries and territories — including 35 countries and territories where Hilton currently does not have any running hotels.

Moreover, the company’s broad geographic diversity lowers the impact of volatility in individual markets. Notably, more than half of Hilton's pipeline is located outside the United States. More than 30% of the pipeline is located in the Asia Pacific region, where demand has been high.

Also, growing middle-class population in China is creating demand for hospitality services. Further, Europe’s RevPAR trends are being supported by favorable exchange rates as well as strength in regions — including Spain, the U.K., Germany and Turkey.

Currently, Hilton carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Other Key Picks

Some other top-ranked stocks in the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector are JAKKS Pacific, Inc (NASDAQ:JAKK) , H&R Block, Inc (NYSE:HRB) and Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

JAKKS Pacific’s earnings surpassed estimates in two of the trailing four quarters, delivering a positive surprise of 8.1%, on average.

H&R Block’s 2020 earnings are expected to rise 13.4%.

Sony has expected earnings per share growth rate of 7.7% for three-five years.

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