Topic: Growth Stocks

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $62.75 – New York symbol WYN

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE $62.75 (New York symbol WYN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (973- 753-6000; www.wyndhamworldwide.com; Shares outstanding: 133.0 million; Market cap: $8.3 billion; Dividend yield: 1.9%) is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, with 7,410 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 in 100 countries.

In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Wyndham’s revenue rose 10.0%, to $1.25 billion from $1.14 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 its occupancy rate by 1.5%.

Before one-time items, earnings rose 12.6%, to $0.98 a share from $0.87. The company continues to buy back its stock. In the latest quarter, it repurchased 2.9 million shares for $175 million. In 2012, it bought back 12.9 million shares for $623 million.

Expanding in attractive markets

To further boost sales, Wyndham has spent heavily on its online booking systems. It’s also expanding in growing markets like Asia and Latin America.

Early this year, Wyndham increased its quarterly dividend by 26.1%, to $0.29 a share from $0.23. The stock now yields 1.9%.

The company’s outlook is positive, but the stock trades at a high 21.7 times Wyndham’s latest 12 months of earnings.

Wyndham is a hold.

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