DogCat - Fair post, but... Dogcat, fair post.
While you say "
No one can disagree that HOT has dropped the ball here" it looks like a few coll-aide drinkers here have completely blown their objectivity out of their brains and have been just hanging onto mgmts words aka. "stories" since this stock was at $10+.
So, unfortunately, there are "some" here, that pathetically screem when someone tries to find the reasons behind huge price plunge and devatstaing destruction of unitholders value.
While I do not know about those "nice hotels" wherever they are, in terms of staying there etc., their acquisition at inflated prices given their poor condition/status has been the main reason for the debacle. Along with mgmts neophyte inability to manage those assets well..
Before mid 2017, HOT had seemingly crappy hotels in the middle of nowhere, but despite that managed to keep sp in the $10.5-11 range, paying ~8%, and keeping payout ratio in 80ies% range.
I'm not disagreeing that at todays price it might be ok value. But neither I nor many other suffering unitholders are deciding wether to buy today or not. I already bought it a long time ago. And bought it for long term. So, if the price decline was just temporary market noise, that is not the problem. The problem is declining metrics that threaten the div payout ratio and as a result the div itself.
And SP action and div now at 12+% clearly states that maret sees HOT as very risky, nothing even close to being "safe".
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No one can disagree that HOT has dropped the ball here. They have underperformed and during a downturn in the overall market, investors have bailed. But look at the longer term story.
They have great properties in the MIdwestern markets (I have stayed in a number of their hotels) they are renovating these major hotels (much needed), in really good underserviced markets, once complete, they will be able to increase rates and it will drive revenue increases going forward.
The way it is trading today, at $6.75, with a yeild of 12.3%, is a screaming buy if you have a longer term outlook. I believe the dividend is safe and I believe the stock is way undervalued. Buy this now and wait for the turnaround. You need to buy these types of assets once the market has taken them out to the wood-shed for a good beating.