Updating your Cyclical-Growth Payers: Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Inc.

Article Excerpt

WYNDHAM HOTELS & RESORTS INC. $73 remains a buy. The company (New York symbol WH; Cyclical-Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 93.5 million; Market cap: $6.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Average, www.wyndhamhotels.com) is a hotel franchiser with 9,000 properties (798,000 rooms) in 95 countries, across 21 hotel brands including Super 8, Days Inn, Ramada, Hawthorn Suites, and Wyndham. It acquired La Quinta in 2018 for $2 billion. Wyndham is raising its quarterly dividend by 50% with the September 2021 payment. The new annual rate of $0.96 a share yields 1.3%. The company is also increasing its share repurchase program by $300 million. Including that increase, it can now buy back up to $386 million of its shares. In the quarter ended June 30, 2021, overall revenue increased 57.4%, to $406 million from $268 million a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, earnings jumped 888.9%, to $89 million from $9 million. On a per-share basis, earnings rose 850.0%, to $0.95 from…