Topic: Growth Stocks

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $59.05 – New York symbol WYN

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $59.05 (New York symbol WYN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (973- 753-6000; www.wyndhamworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 140.3 million; Market cap: $8.3 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%) is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, with 7,380 franchised hotels worldwide.

In addition to hotels, Wyndham manages vacation resorts, rental properties, luxury clubs and time-shares. The company now has over 106,000 vacation rental properties worldwide.

In the three months ended March 31, 2013, the hotel and resort operator’s revenue rose 9.4%, to $1.13 billion from $1.04 billion a year earlier. The company gets most of its revenue from vacation rather than business travel, and vacation bookings rose in the latest quarter. That helped push up Wyndham’s occupancy rate by 2.4%.

Before one-time items, earnings rose 18.3%, to $0.71 a share from $0.60. The company continues to buy back its stock. In the latest quarter, it repurchased 2.4 million shares for $140 million. In 2012, it bought back 12.9 million shares for $623 million.

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

The company recently increased its quarterly dividend by 26.1%, to $0.29 a share from $0.23. The stock now yields 1.9%.

Although Wyndham’s outlook is positive, the stock now trades at a high 21.5 times the company’s latest 12 months of earnings.

Wyndham is a hold.

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