Marriott (NASDAQ:MAR) rose in the first hour Tuesday after Marriott beat estimates on the top and bottom lines for the fourth quarter. Marriott reported $1.96 in adjusted earnings per share on $5.92 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting $1.83 per share on $5.47 billion of revenue.
According to CEO Anthony Capuano, “Our performance in 2022 was terrific. Just two years after experiencing the sharpest downturn in our company’s history, we reported record financial results. Our fee-driven, asset-light business model generated significant cash during the year, allowing us to both invest in the growth of our business and return $2.9 billion to shareholders.
“For the fourth quarter, worldwide RevPAR grew 5% compared to 2019, driven by a 13% increase in ADR. With the exception of Greater China , RevPAR in all regions more than fully recovered and continued to show meaningful advances in occupancy and ADR. Our international business posted RevPAR 3 percent above 2019 levels in the fourth quarter.
According to Tuesday’s news release, At the end of the year, Marriott’s worldwide development pipeline totaled over 3,000 properties and more than 496,000 rooms, including roughly 22,300 rooms approved, but not yet subject to signed contracts. Approximately 199,000 rooms in the pipeline were under construction as of the end of 2022.
For full year 2022, Marriott repurchased 16.8 million shares of common stock for $2.6 billion, including 8.7 million shares for $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter. The company returned $2.9 billion to shareholders in 2022.
MAR shares gained $2.15, or 1.2%, to $176.51.