Marriott International announced a boffo first quarter earnings result, beating Wall Street expectations and setting itself up for what is likely to be a huge summer lodging season.
Marriott's earnings from January through March were $1.25 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 95 cents per share. Total revenue for Q1 was $4.2 billion, close to double the $2.32 billion in the first quarter of 2021.
"During the first quarter, we saw the largest surge in global demand since the pandemic began in 2020. Worldwide occupancy rose dramatically from 45 percent in January, impacted by the Omicron variant, to 64 percent in March, less than 10 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels," Anthony Capuano, Marriott's Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.
Capuano also announced that Marriott would again start paying dividends to those owing stock in the company.
"I am very pleased to share that we are resuming capital returns to shareholders sooner than anticipated. Our focus on maximizing cash flow, managing expenses, and improving our credit profile, combined with strong first quarter results, has resulted in our Board of Directors declaring a $0.30 per share quarterly cash dividend payable at the end of the second quarter," he said.
"Assuming the demand environment continues to improve and that we are within our target leverage ratio range, we also would expect to resume share repurchases in 2022."
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