Hilton quarterly profit beats on steady travel demand

[July 24, 2019]  (Reuters) - U.S. hotel operator Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc <HLT.N> topped Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by a steady demand for its rooms in the United States.

However, the owner of Waldorf Astoria and Conrad hotel chains lowered the high end of its 2019 outlook for RevPAR - a key performance metric for the hotel industry - amid slowing global economies.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday lowered its estimate for global growth in 2019, as the U.S.-China trade spat and Brexit uncertainties are seen eroding business confidence and weakening investment spending.

The slowing growth directly affects travel budgets of corporates.

Hilton said it now expects full-year RevPAR to increase between 1% and 2%, down from an earlier range of 1.0% to 3.0% rise.

The company now expects adjusted earnings for 2019 between $3.78 and $3.85 per share, compared to their previous forecast of $3.74 to $3.84 per share.

Hilton's net income attributable to stockholders rose to $260 million, or 89 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $217 million, or 71 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, Hilton earned $1.06 per share in the quarter beating analysts' average estimate of $1.02 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Revenue rose 8.4% to $2.48 billion.

(Reporting by Ashwini Raj and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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