How To Look At Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:HST)
Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. is a US$14b large-cap, real estate investment trust (REIT) based in Bethesda, United States. REITs own and operate income-generating property and adhere to a different set of regulations. This impacts how HST’s business operates and also how we should analyse its stock. Below, I'll look at a few important metrics to keep in mind as part of your research on HST.
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Funds from Operations (FFO) is a higher quality measure of HST's earnings compared to net income. This term is very common in the REIT investing world as it provides a cleaner look at its cash flow from daily operations by excluding impact of one-off activities or non-cash items such as depreciation. For HST, its FFO of US$1.3b makes up 81% of its gross profit, which means the majority of its earnings are high-quality and recurring.
HST's financial stability can be gauged by seeing how much its FFO generated each year can cover its total amount of debt. The higher the coverage, the less risky HST is, broadly speaking, to have debt on its books. The metric I'll be using, FFO-to-debt, also estimates the time it will take for the company to repay its debt with its FFO. With a ratio of 34%, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor would consider this as significant risk. This would take HST 2.95 years to pay off using operating income alone, which is reasonable, given that long term debt is a multi-year commitment.
I also look at HST's interest coverage ratio, which demonstrates how many times its earnings can cover its yearly interest expense. This is similar to the concept above, but looks at the upcoming obligations. The ratio is typically calculated using EBIT, but for a REIT stock, it's better to use FFO divided by net interest. With an interest coverage ratio of 7.39x, it’s safe to say HST is generating an appropriate amount of cash from its borrowings.
I also use FFO to look at HST's valuation relative to other REITs in United States by using the price-to-FFO metric. This is conceptually the same as the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, but as previously mentioned, FFO is more suitable. In HST’s case its P/FFO is 10.93x, compared to the long-term industry average of 16.5x, meaning that it is undervalued.
Next Steps:
In this article, I've taken a look at Funds from Operations using various metrics, but it is certainly not sufficient to derive an investment decision based on this value alone. Host Hotels & Resorts can bring about diversification for your portfolio, but before you decide to invest, take a look at the other aspects you must consider before investing:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for HST’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for HST’s outlook.
Valuation: What is HST worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether HST is currently mispriced by the market.
Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
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If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
