PARSIPPANY, N.J. (AP) -- Wyndham Worldwide Corp.'s net income declined 28 percent in the fourth quarter, stung by higher expenses and impairment charges. But the hotel company's adjusted results beat Wall Street's expectations.
The hotel company also raised its full-year earnings guidance on Wednesday and said that it is increasing its quarterly dividend by 53 percent.
Wyndham, which runs hotels under brands including Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and Days Inn and sells vacation time shares, earned $56 million, or 37 cents per share, in the October-December quarter. That compares with earnings of $78 million, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.
Taking out $27 million in impairment charges and other items, earnings were 47 cents per share, topping the 44 cents per share that analysts surveyed by FactSet had predicted.
Total expenses climbed 12 percent to $899 million from $800 million in the quarter.
Revenue rose 7 percent to $1 billion from $937 million. The company said that its results benefited from a 15 percent increase in revenue from its hotels, a 3 percent rise in revenue from its vacation exchange and rentals segment and a 6 percent uptick in vacation ownership revenue.
Wall Street expected revenue of $1.01 billion.
A key hotel metric, revenue per available room, ticked up 5 percent in the October-December quarter from the year before, but the measure fell 29 percent from the July-September quarter.
The lodging industry suffered during the recession, and many hotel companies lowered room rates. With demand growing stronger, hotels can raise rates and add more rooms.
Wyndham's full-year earnings increased 10 percent to $417 million, or $2.51 per share, from $379 million, or $2.05 per share, in the prior year.
Annual revenue rose 10.5 percent to $4.25 billion from $3.85 billion.
Looking ahead, Wyndham now expects 2012 earnings of $2.85 to $3 per share. Its previous forecast was for earnings between $2.72 and $2.82 per share. Revenue is anticipated in a range of about $4.4 billion to $4.6 billion.
Analysts were predicting earnings of $2.84 per share on revenue of $4.48 billion for the year.
Wyndham is raising its quarterly dividend to 23 cents per share from 15 cents per share. The Parsippany, N.J. company said that the higher amount should start with the first-quarter dividend.
Shares slipped 43 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $40.50 in premarket trading Wednesday.
There are no comments yet