US hotel chain Hilton Worldwide Holdings has increased net profit by 28 per cent in the first quarter and also improved its full-year 2026 outlook.
Net income in the January-March period was $383 million, or $1.66 per share, compared with $300 million, or $1.23 per share, in the same period a year earlier, the reports said. Adjusted earnings rose to $2.01 per share from $1.72.
Revenue rose 9% to $2.94 billion. Revenue per number (RevPAR) excluding currency changes rose 3.6% to $105.97.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had on average forecast the company’s adjusted earnings at $1.98 per paper on revenue of $2.95bn.
The company opened 131 hotels out of 16,300 rooms in the first quarter. Net room additions totalled 10.9k.
Hiton has repurchased 2.7 million of its own shares this year for more than $1.08bn. The company also paid $860m in dividends.
The company expects adjusted earnings to be in the range of $2.18-2.24 per share for the second quarter and $8.79-8.91 per share for the full year 2026. RevPAR is also expected to increase by 2-3% for both the current quarter and the year.
Hiton previously planned to raise RevPAR by 1-2% this year and earnings of $8.65-8.77 per share.
The company still plans to return $3.5bn to shareholders this year.
Hilton’s stock price is down 1.6% in early trading on Tuesday. Over the past three months, the company’s capitalisation has increased by 12.3% (to $76bn), while the S&P 500 stock index has added 3.2%.