Lyle Stein
American Hotel Income
HOT.UN-T
COMMENT
May 09, 2017
He owns this for 2 reasons. It began as a hotel for railroads. 1. It has some nice growth potential as they roll up smaller hotels in and across the US. 2. He likes its real estate outside of Canada, so you get exposure of the real estate sector, without having assets tied up in Canada. If the Cdn$ goes down, he has an asset that appreciates in value.
A huge dividend is not a good thing. The market is telling us something – the dividend is too high. They may be capitalizing too much of their maintenance expenditures. The CAP-X is about 6% of net operating income. It should be 20-25%, which is closer to what they are actually spending. They don’t have to cut their dividend, but at this point in the cycle and with more sensitivity in the cycle, they should be more conservative with their capital.
This REIT has had so many problems. They owned a lot of railway depot hotels, where engineers would take rest. These contracts have been lost and they own in secondary markets. They have over distributed and missed earnings on several occasions. They are now having to invest to keep these assets maintained. This is still a work in progress stock. He does not think the 12% yield will be sustainable. Stay away.
This would be a sell for him. He is not into the hotel space. It comes down to how well you operate these assets. He is not a fan of the operations or management. Railway hotels that are now being sold at losses. Not a good investment. Avoid.
It is operating in a very difficult space and he is short in that space. These leases reset every night. Revenue per available room at best is going be flat over the next year. They have too much debt and don’t cover their distribution.
It is a difficult stock to own in this environment. The pandemic has shut them. He believes the distribution has been suspended. They have impaired cash flow and higher level.
He once owned this, selling it before Covid fortunately. The reason was that the 9% dividend could not be sustainable. Indeed, the dividend was cut during Covid. He wouldn't buy it back. Their hotels remain largely empty. He isn't a flipper or trader. Perhaps you can make a trade her if the US economy rapidly reopens and travel revives. There are better ways to play the reopening. Doesn't know when their dividend will return.
Hotels are typically the first sector to go down in a downturn and the first to come out. Today there is zero visibility, however. He would move on from this one.
They own U.S. hotels, a high-risk, high-reward stock. He's bearish on hotels, which is struggling with labour costs and keeping labour. HOT.UN has done a good job restoring vacancies, in the low-70s, though their peak was in the 80s. However, they've made up the balance on their hotel rates. Their balance sheet is slightly higher, so he would avoid. There are better hotel names.
He owns this for 2 reasons. It began as a hotel for railroads. 1. It has some nice growth potential as they roll up smaller hotels in and across the US. 2. He likes its real estate outside of Canada, so you get exposure of the real estate sector, without having assets tied up in Canada. If the Cdn$ goes down, he has an asset that appreciates in value.