Zacks Equity Research
4 min read
Host Hotels & Resorts HST owns a diversified portfolio of luxury and upper-upscale hotels in major urban and resort markets, supporting rate-led growth from leisure, group and business travel.
Analysts seem bullish on this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock. The estimate revision trend for 2026 adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share indicates a favorable outlook, with estimates moving north over the past month.
Over the past six months, shares of Host Hotels have increased 15.1%, outperforming the industry’s 2.8% growth. Given its solid fundamentals and positive estimate revisions, the stock is likely to maintain its momentum in the quarters ahead.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
What Makes Host Hotels a Solid Choice?
Demand visibility: Host Hotels benefits from a diversified mix of urban, resort and convention properties across top 21 U.S. markets, supporting leisure, group and business demand. In the second quarter of 2026, transient room revenues increased 6.9%, while group room revenues rose 7.4% as both rates and room nights advanced. Definite group room nights on the books for 2026 reached 3.8 million, up 8% since the first quarter of 2026, and total group revenue pace was more than 5% above the same time last year.
In the second quarter of 2026, comparable hotel revenues per available room (RevPAR) rose 7% year over year and comparable hotel Total RevPAR increased 5.9%. Management raised full-year 2026 comparable hotel RevPAR and Total RevPAR growth guidance to 4.75% to 5.25% and expects mid-single-digit RevPAR growth for the remainder of the year. With new supply across Host Hotels’ markets and chain scales near historic lows, the demand mix should support continued rate-led growth beyond event-driven periods.
Accretive capital recycling: Host Hotels continues to sell lower-growth assets with elevated capital needs and redeploy capital toward higher-quality hotels and portfolio reinvestment. In the second quarter of 2026, Host Hotels sold the Sheraton Parsippany Hotel for $12 million.
From 2021 through 2026, dispositions totaled $2.9 billion at a 16.5x EBITDA multiple compared with $3.3 billion of acquisitions at 13.3x. Over that period, Host Hotels disposed of 17 assets and avoided an estimated $710 million of near-term capital spending while acquiring 12 fee-simple assets in six new markets with no notable near-term capital needs. This discipline, combined with Host Hotels’ liquidity and all-cash buying capacity, should preserve flexibility to pursue opportunities without weakening return standards.
