Marriott Issues Guidance - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Marriott International, Inc. (MAR) announced, for the full year 2017, the company expects comparable systemwide RevPAR on a constant dollar basis for the combined company will be flat to up 2 percent in North America. The company expects comparable systemwide RevPAR on a constant dollar basis for the combined company will increase 1 to 3 percent outside North America and 0.5 to 2.5 percent worldwide. The company assumes full year 2017 total fee revenue will total $3.175 billion to $3.245 billion, growth of 3 to 6 percent over combined 2016 total fee revenue. For the combined company, Marriott anticipates gross room additions of 6 percent, net, for full year 2017. Marriott expects earnings per share of $3.79 to $3.97, which includes the $0.10 expected favorable impact from the adoption of ASU 2016-09.

"While we do not assume asset sales in our earnings guidance, we believe assets will be sold in 2017. Not including asset sales, we expect to return $1.5 billion to $2.0 billion to shareholders in share repurchases and dividends in 2017," Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott, said.

For the 2017 first quarter, Marriott expects comparable systemwide RevPAR on a constant dollar basis for the combined company will increase 1 to 3 percent in North America and worldwide. Outside North America, the company expects comparable systemwide RevPAR on a constant dollar basis for the combined company will increase 1 to 2 percent. The company assumes first quarter total fee revenue will total $740 million to $750 million, flat to up 1 percent compared to combined first quarter 2016 total fee revenue. Marriott expects earnings per share of $0.87 to $0.91, which includes the $0.10 expected favorable impact from the adoption of ASU 2016-09.

Fourth quarter reported EPS totaled $0.62, a 19 percent decrease over prior year results. Fourth quarter adjusted EPS totaled $0.85, a 20 percent increase over fourth quarter 2015 combined results.

North American comparable systemwide constant dollar RevPAR rose 1.1 percent in the 2016 fourth quarter, while worldwide comparable systemwide constant dollar RevPAR rose 0.8 percent.

During the twelve months ended December 31, 2016, Marriott and Starwood together added more than 68,000 rooms, including roughly 11,000 rooms converted from competitor brands and approximately 31,000 rooms in international markets.