HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee, and MILWAUKEE—The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index jumped 22.4 percent in February 2021 to a level of 5,141. Year to date through the first two months of 2021, the stock index was up 12.4 percent.
“Hotel stocks posted huge gains in February as the reopening and reflation trade momentum caused many hotel brands and hotel REITs to reach new post-pandemic highs,” said Michael Bellisario, senior hotel research analyst and director at Baird. “Investors appear willing to pay up today for several years of expected growth, and improving vaccine distribution and declining case counts have caused investors to become even more optimistic about the prospects for a significant improvement in demand during the second half of the year and in 2022.”
“Investor sentiment clearly reflects the focus on future developments as our current data still shows RevPAR declines around 50 percent,” said Amanda Hite, STR president. “We do expect that additional vaccine production will give rise to an increase in traveler confidence but not beyond what has already been forecasted. Green shoots are emerging, and some markets in Florida are already seeing healthy demand numbers, but the U.S. overall will not see a sustained recovery until the summer.”
In February 2021, the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index outperformed both the S&P 500 (up 2.6 percent) and the MSCI US REIT Index (up 3.8 percent).
The Hotel Brand sub-index increased 22 percent from January to 8,833, while the Hotel REIT sub-index rose 23.6 percent to 1,305.
