The opening quarter of 2016 brought a mixed bag of results for Choice Hotels International.
On Wednesday the Rockville, Maryland-based company reported net income of $19.6 million for the three-month period ended March 31. However the $0.35 earnings per share fell short of expectations on Wall Street, where analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research projected an EPS of $0.38.
Nonetheless Choice Hotels triumphed over expert projections for revenue, reporting $207.1 million in the first quarter of 2016. The figure was $24 million more than analyst projections obtained by Zacks and represents an 18 percent jump from the same period in 2015.
Domestic revenue per available room also increased 1.2 percent in the opening quarter.
Following Wednesday's first quarter 2016 results announcement, Choice Hotels said it expects full-year earnings somewhere in between $2.30 and $2.35 per share.
Choice Hotels' domestic pipeline of hotels in the works increased 12 percent in the opening quarter from March 31, 2015.
READ MORE: Is Choice Hotels Considering Entry into Sharing Economy?
In addition to the financial results, Choice Hotels president and CEO Stephen Joyce said the company was "excited" about enhancements made to its Choice Privileges loyalty program during the first three months of 2016.
"As a result of our strong family of brands and our enhancements to the program we now have more than 26 million members and expect to add a record 4 million new members this year," Joyce said in a statement. "We believe that improving the value of the benefits provided to our guests as well as the strength of our distribution systems will result in continued RevPAR growth for the remainder of the year."
"We are also optimistic that developers will continue to respond to our brands and that our franchise development results will exceed 2015 levels," he concluded.
The first quarter was also highlighted by Choice Hotels' entry into the vacation rental market with the launch of Vacation Rentals by Choice Hotels in February 2016.
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