Host Hotels upgraded at Oppenheimer on multiple expansion potential

Oppenheimer analyst Tyler Batory upgraded Host Hotels to Outperform from Perform with a $21 price target. The lodging REIT sector “appears to be on a slow road to nowhere” as industry RevPAR trends have underperformed expectations and are unlikely to inflect higher, the analyst tells investors. Given that unfavorable cost of capital also limits capital allocation opportunities the firm argues that it is difficult to see multiple expansion for most of the stocks in its lodging REIT coverage. However, Host “is an exception,” given its size, scale, group exposure and balance sheet says the analyst, who calls Host “one of the few stocks in the sector that has factors supporting multiple expansion.”