Hyatt Hotels (H) Upgraded to Buy by Citigroup

Hyatt Hotels (NYSE:H) was upgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $82.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 16.56% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on H. Robert W. Baird restated a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 target price on shares of Hyatt Hotels in a research note on Friday, September 8th. SunTrust Banks restated a “hold” rating and set a $61.00 target price on shares of Hyatt Hotels in a research note on Tuesday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Hyatt Hotels from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Hyatt Hotels from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $76.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, November 6th. Finally, B. Riley cut Hyatt Hotels from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.55.

Shares of Hyatt Hotels (NYSE H) traded down $0.40 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $70.35. The company had a trading volume of 637,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 761,909. The firm has a market capitalization of $8,411.82, a P/E ratio of 39.31, a P/E/G ratio of 10.06 and a beta of 1.25. Hyatt Hotels has a 1-year low of $50.21 and a 1-year high of $73.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Hyatt Hotels (NYSE:H) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 2nd. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Hyatt Hotels had a return on equity of 6.13% and a net margin of 4.66%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.47 earnings per share. sell-side analysts predict that Hyatt Hotels will post 1.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In other news, insider Rena Hozore Reiss sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total value of $245,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,881 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,897,019.83. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mark Samuel Hoplamazian sold 49,173 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.54, for a total value of $3,517,836.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 300,655 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,508,858.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,000,001 shares of company stock valued at $68,120,268 over the last quarter. 27.51% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in H. Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in Hyatt Hotels during the 2nd quarter worth $37,099,000. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA raised its position in Hyatt Hotels by 485.2% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 624,966 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,129,000 after purchasing an additional 518,164 shares during the last quarter. Gruss Capital Management LP raised its position in Hyatt Hotels by 316.1% during the 3rd quarter. Gruss Capital Management LP now owns 645,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,855,000 after purchasing an additional 490,000 shares during the last quarter. Koch Industries Inc. bought a new position in Hyatt Hotels during the 2nd quarter worth $478,000. Finally, Long Pond Capital LP raised its position in Hyatt Hotels by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Long Pond Capital LP now owns 3,035,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,567,000 after purchasing an additional 374,704 shares during the last quarter. 38.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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About Hyatt Hotels

Hyatt Hotels Corporation is a global hospitality company. The Company develops, owns, operates, manages, franchises, licenses or provides services to a portfolio of properties. The Company operates through four segments: owned and leased hotels; Americas management and franchising (Americas); ASPAC management and franchising (ASPAC), and EAME/SW Asia management and franchising (EAME/SW Asia).