Stocks fell on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.06%) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.22%) indexes each finishing lower by less than 0.25%.
Today's stock market
|
Index |
Percentage Change |
Point Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow |
(0.17%) |
(36.50) |
|
S&P 500 |
(0.10%) |
(2.46) |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Financial stocks saw some of the heaviest trading, and the popular Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF 0.35%) trailed the broader market slightly by posting a 0.4% decline. Gold prices fell, which pushed the highly leveraged Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Bull 3X ETF (JNUG 1.67%) down 0.7%.
As for individual stocks, Marriott International (MAR -0.91%) and Hertz (HTZG.Q) made big moves following their quarterly earnings reports.
Image source: Getty Images.
Marriott raises its outlook
Investors pushed Marriott shares 6.3% higher after the hotel chain announced robust first-quarter growth. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose 3.1% on surprisingly strong travel demand in the U.S. and in the company's Asia-Pacific region. In contrast, management three months ago forecast RevPAR growth of 2% at the midpoint of guidance.
The boost helped power sales of $5.56 billion, which beat consensus estimates that were targeting $5.29 billion. At the same time, rising food and beverage sales helped push hotel-level margins up by a full percentage point, allowing net income to jump 67% to $365 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
"We were pleased by our performance in the quarter across the board," CEO Arne Sorenson said in a press release. "RevPAR exceeded our expectations in North America and Europe due to stronger group attendance and higher-rated business transient demand," he added.
Looking ahead, the company plans to focus on integrating the massive Starwood business it recently acquired into the operations. Meanwhile, growth trends are improving, and so Sorenson and his team raised their 2017 RevPAR forecast to between 1% and 3% from the prior target of 0.5% to 2.5%. Investors can also expect the company to keep aggressively building on its portfolio of rooms, as Marriott is targeting an additional 6% of gross room additions in 2017.
Hertz' expensive turnaround plan
Hertz shares slumped 14% after the car rental company posted quarterly results that showed deteriorating operating trends. Vehicle utilization dropped to 75% in the key U.S. market, down 3 percentage points from the prior year. Daily revenue also slipped lower, as did revenue per unit on its fleet of cars. These trends combined to push Hertz's pre-tax loss to $116 million in the U.S. from a loss of $4 million a year ago.
Lower residual values on used cars pinched results, too, especially given that the company is currently selling a significant portion of its fleet to make room for newer models. Depreciation expenses shot up to 37% of sales from 31%.
CEO Kathryn Marinello said that the management team was "mindful of today's headwinds related to used car residual values," but that "our commitment to investing in the business remains steadfast." Thus, Hertz plans to continue pouring resources into initiatives like improving fleet quality and boosting the customer experience. "These investments are critical to rebuilding our position as a leader in the global rental car market," Marinello added.
Still, the latest performance figures aren't yet improving as a result of the team's turnaround plan, and so investors pushed shares lower in response to the widening operating loss.
