3. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 63
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) has been a market leader in the hospitality sector for decades. The company manages resorts and hotels under an ownership and leasing model. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) is one of the best summer stocks to invest in. On July 26, the company announced a Q2 non-GAAP EPS of $1.63 and a revenue of $2.66 billion, outperforming Wall Street consensus by $0.05 and $100 million, respectively. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) disclosed that the revenue per available room is expected to increase by 10% for full-year 2023. In addition to that, the company opened 92 new hotels in the second quarter of 2023 and also launched a new project focused on business travelers, in order to cater to the expanding travel market.
According to Insider Monkey’s first quarter database, 63 hedge funds were bullish on Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT). This number remains unchanged from the previous quarter. Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square held the biggest position in Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT), with approximately 9.3 million shares worth $1.3 billion.
Pershing Square Holdings specifically said this about Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:
“Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HLT) is a high-quality, asset-light, high-margin business with significant long-term growth potential, led by a superb management team. The unforeseen arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a rapid and near-complete standstill in global travel, with RevPAR (the industry metric for same-store sales at a given hotel) down roughly 90% at the nadir of the pandemic. We increased our investment in Hilton during the pandemic as we believed the economic dislocation from COVID-19 would prove to be transient and that industry projections regarding the timeline for recovery were too pessimistic.
From the moment the pandemic began, Hilton’s management team took decisive actions to ensure the company not only managed through what it knew would be a challenging period, but also positioned the company to generate improved margins, cash flows, and investment returns once the business recovered. In hindsight, Hilton’s experience with COVID-19 – the 100-year proverbial flood – affirmed the company’s unique high-quality, asset light, high-margin business model, and reinforced our belief that Hilton deserves a premium valuation.
While Hilton entered 2022 impacted by the Omicron variant, results have vastly improved throughout the year as COVID-19 has evolved towards a more endemic virus, and consumer behavior has adapted accordingly. In recent months, Hilton’s system-wide RevPAR has surpassed 2019 levels and continues to improve. Recent strength has been led by domestic leisure travel occasions as consumer spending continues to shift from goods to services. …” (Click here to read the full text)
