Topic: Growth Stocks

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $53.52 – New York symbol WYN

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $53.52 (New York symbol WYN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (973- 753-6000; www.wyndhamworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 142.2 million; Market cap: $7.6 billion; Dividend yield: 1.7%) is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, with 7,170 franchised hotels worldwide. Aside from Wyndham and Ramada, it owns a variety of other brands, including Days Inn, Super 8, Wingate, Baymont Inn & Suites, Microtel Inns & Suites, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson, Travelodge and AmeriHost Inn.

In addition to hotels, Wyndham manages vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares. The company now has 100,000 vacation rental properties worldwide. This wide range of operations gives it more consistent cash flow than most of its competitors, which mainly focus on hotels.

Vacation travel remains strong

In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Wyndham’s revenue rose 4.5%, to $1.14 billion from $1.0 billion. Vacation bookings rose in the latest quarter. That pushed up Wyndham’s occupancy rate by 3.6%.

Before one-time items, earnings rose 35.9%, to $0.87 a share from $0.64. In the latest quarter, Wyndham bought back 3.8 million shares for $190 million. In all of 2011, the company bought back 28.7 million shares for $902 million.

To further boost revenue, Wyndham has invested heavily in online booking systems. It is also expanding in fast-growing markets like Asia and Latin America.

Wyndham’s stock continues to hit all-time highs. Its outlook is positive, but it now trades at a high 20.1 times the company’s latest 12 months of earnings.

Wyndham Worldwide is a hold.

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