Hotel Trusts Outpace REIT Sector at Large

NEW YORK CITY—With the exception of North America’s largest city, hotel supply growth across the US is trending below long-term averages. That’s just one factor in the bullish predictions for lodging REITs by two analysts headquartered here, Cowen & Co. and MLV & Co.

“We believe that investors should overweight the hotel REIT sector, and we reiterate our Outperform ratings on Host Hotels, LaSalle Hotels and Pebblebrook,” write Cowen analysts James Sullivan and William Kuo in a report issued this week. “Overall low levels of new room supply growth combined with healthy demand growth are resulting in the highest gains in asset level cash flow of any REIT sector.”