Marriott International Inc.
Reported diluted EPS increased to $2.43 from $2.39, while adjusted net income rose to $726 million from $645 million. Adjusted EBITDA climbed 15% to $1.40 billion, and adjusted operating margin expanded to 64% from 63%.
RevPAR Growth, Fee Strength
Worldwide RevPAR increased 4.2%, exceeding the high end of Marriott's expectations, with U.S. and Canada RevPAR up 4% and international RevPAR up 4.6%.
APEC RevPAR rose more than 7%, while Greater China RevPAR increased nearly 6%, driven by leisure demand in Hong Kong and Hainan. EMEA RevPAR grew more than 3%, as gains in Europe and Africa partly offset weakness in the Middle East tied to regional conflict.
Franchise and base management fees rose 13% to $1.21 billion, driven by higher co-branded credit card fees, room growth, and stronger RevPAR.
Incentive management fees increased to $222 million from $204 million.
Pipeline, Loyalty, Capital Return
Marriott added roughly 15,900 net rooms during the quarter, lifting net rooms growth to 4.5%.
Its development pipeline reached a record 4,107 properties and nearly 618,000 rooms, up more than 5% year over year. Conversions accounted for more than 35% of signings and more than 40% of openings.
Marriott Bonvoy membership grew to nearly 283 million members at quarter-end.
CEO Anthony Capuano said, "We delivered excellent first quarter results, reflecting the strength of our brands, our unmatched global footprint, and the resilience of demand for travel."
Marriott ended the quarter with $16.5 billion in debt and $0.5 billion in cash. The company repurchased 2.1 million shares for $0.7 billion during the quarter and returned more than $1.2 billion to shareholders year-to-date through dividends and buybacks.
Marriott Outlook
The company said its updated outlook assumes the Middle East conflict and related travel disruptions will continue through the end of 2026, mainly affecting the Middle East region. The guidance also excludes any impact from ongoing negotiations tied to its U.S. co-branded credit card agreements.
For full-year 2026, the company expects worldwide comparable systemwide constant-dollar RevPAR growth of 2% to 3%, while net rooms growth is projected at 4.5% to 5%.
The company raised its full-year gross fee revenue outlook to $5.93 billion to $5.99 billion (up 9 to 10%) and adjusted EBITDA of $5.88 billion to $5.97 billion. Adjusted diluted EPS is expected between $11.38 and $11.63, versus estimates of $11.60.
Investment spending is projected at $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion, while capital returns to shareholders are expected to exceed $4.4 billion.
For the second quarter, Marriott expects adjusted EPS of $2.99 to $3.06, compared with analyst estimates of $3.06.
The outlook assumes continued Middle East travel disruption, including an expected roughly 50% RevPAR decline in the region during the second quarter, which would reduce full-year global RevPAR growth by 100 to 125 basis points.
Marriott Price Action
MAR Price Action: Marriott International shares were up 1.95% at $361.43 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
