Topic: Growth Stocks

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, February 18, 2011

Article Excerpt

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE CORP., $32.07, symbol WYN on New York, is the third-largest hotel company in the world, with 7,110 franchised hotels. It operates under a number of brands, including Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Ramada, Days Inn, Super 8, Wingate by Wyndham, Baymont Inn & Suites, Microtel Inns & Suites, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson, Travelodge, Knights Inn and Ameri-host Inn. In addition to hotels, Wyndham manages a number of vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares. This wide range of operations gives Wyndham more consistent cash flow than most of its competitors, who mainly focus on hotels. On November 30, 2010, the company bought James Villa Holidays, which owns 2,300 Mediterranean vacation rental properties. Wyndham now has 97,000 vacation rental properties worldwide. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, revenue rose 2.6%, to $937.0 million from $913.0 million a year earlier. Wyndham gets most of its revenue from vacation rather than business travel, and vacation bookings are rising as the economy…