Marriott International Inc. (NYSE: MAR) moved to a fourth-quarter profit, citing improvement in business travel and leisure travelers utilizing promotions, according to Associated Press.
Marriott also offered first-quarter and full-year earnings outlooks in range of analysts' expectations and raised its guidance for a 2010 key revenue figure.
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Marriott, whose hotels include Ritz-Carlton and its namesake, earned $106 million, or 28 cents per share, for the period ended Jan. 1, compared to a loss of $10 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier.
Removing restructuring charges of $7 million and other items, adjusted income from continuing operations was 32 cents per share.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, whose estimates generally exclude one-time items, forecast a smaller profit of 26 cents per share.
The results also topped Marriott's previous guidance for adjusted earnings between 20 cents and 23 cents per share.
Marriott said revenue dropped to $3.38 billion from $3.78 billion. However, the performance still managed to surpass Wall Street's $3.21 billion estimate.
Revenue per available room (revpar) for Marriott's worldwide company-run hotels open at least a year fell 13.1 percent in the quarter. Revenue per available room for its company-run North American full-service and luxury hotels open at least a year slipped 11.8 percent.
In the timeshare segment, adjusted sales and services revenue dipped 3 percent to $375 million.
For the full year, Marriott posted a loss of $346 million, or 97 cents per share. Annual revenue declined to $10.91 billion from $12.88 billion.
The company expects first-quarter earnings from continuing operations of 15 cents to 21 cents per share and 2010 earnings of 82 cents to 94 cents per share.
Analysts predict profit of 18 cents per share for the first quarter and 89 cents per share for the year.
Marriott now expects 2010 revenue per available room to be up 2 percent to down 2 percent, adjusted for currency shifts. Its previous outlook was for revpar to be flat to down 5 percent.
The hotel operator said it will roll out two new brands this year: Edition and the Autograph Collection. The company said its worldwide development pipeline totaled about 100,000 rooms at year's end, with almost 75 percent of those rooms outside North America.
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