LRT Capital Management, an investment management firm, published its first-quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. A return of -7.37% was recorded by the LRT Economic Moat strategy for the first quarter of 2022, resulting in a 12-month return of +16.72%. In the LRT Economic Moat strategy, as of April 1st, 2022, the fund’s net exposure was approximately 99% and its estimated net beta-adjusted exposure was 62.2%. Try to spend some time taking a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to be informed about their best picks for 2022.
In its Q1 2022 investor letter, LRT Capital Management mentioned Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 1927, Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) is a Bethesda, Maryland-based global lodging company with a $58.0 billion market capitalization. Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) delivered a 7.43% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 19.23%. The stock closed at $177.52 per share on April 29, 2022.
Here is what LRT Capital Management has to say about Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:
“Marriott is the world’s largest hotel company followed closely by Hilton (HLT) and Intercontinental Hotels Group plc (IHG). The company owns a portfolio of brands from the low end (Courtyard, SpringHill Suites, Aloft), through the mid-tier (Marriott, Sheraton, Westin, Renaissance Hotels), to the luxury high end (JW Marriot, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis). In total the company had 7,642 properties with over 1.4 million rooms as of the end of Q1 2021. The majority (85%) of Marriott’s revenue comes from hotels in the United States, with the rest almost evenly split between Asia Pacific and Europe. Like it’s smaller peer, Hilton, the company today is almost exclusively a manager and franchisor of hotels, not a hotel owner. The company owns 66 hotels, manages 2,083 and franchises 5,493. Like all franchise-based businesses Marriott requires very little capital to grow as it utilizes the investment capital of its hotel-owners/partners to expand. Marriott currently faces a difficult operating environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty about the future of business travel. However, the company is an excellent operator with a somewhat leveraged capital structure (the company acquired Starwood Properties in late 2016) – if pent-up demand for travel materializes post-Covid, as we expect it will, the company will quickly go from losing money to raking in profits.”
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Our calculations show that Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) fell short and didn’t make it on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) was in 43 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 39 funds in the previous quarter. Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) delivered a 10.18% return in the past 3 months.
In March 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) in another article. You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2022 Q1 page.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
