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4 Reasons to Add Host Hotels Stock to Your Portfolio Now
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Key Takeaways
Host Hotels saw 7% comparable RevPAR growth, with group and transient revenues rising in Q2 2026.
HST sold lower-growth assets while acquiring higher-quality hotels with limited near-term capital needs.
HST had about $3 billion in liquidity after dividends, supporting capital spending, acquisitions and returns.
Host Hotels & Resorts (HST - Free Report) owns a diversified portfolio of luxury and upper-upscale hotels in major urban and resort markets, supporting rate-led growth from leisure, group and business travel.
Analysts seem bullish on this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock. The estimate revision trend for 2026 adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share indicates a favorable outlook, with estimates moving north over the past month.
Over the past six months, shares of Host Hotels have increased 15.1%, outperforming the industry’s 2.8% growth. Given its solid fundamentals and positive estimate revisions, the stock is likely to maintain its momentum in the quarters ahead.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
What Makes Host Hotels a Solid Choice?
Demand visibility: Host Hotels benefits from a diversified mix of urban, resort and convention properties across top 21 U.S. markets, supporting leisure, group and business demand. In the second quarter of 2026, transient room revenues increased 6.9%, while group room revenues rose 7.4% as both rates and room nights advanced. Definite group room nights on the books for 2026 reached 3.8 million, up 8% since the first quarter of 2026, and total group revenue pace was more than 5% above the same time last year.
In the second quarter of 2026, comparable hotel revenues per available room (RevPAR) rose 7% year over year and comparable hotel Total RevPAR increased 5.9%. Management raised full-year 2026 comparable hotel RevPAR and Total RevPAR growth guidance to 4.75% to 5.25% and expects mid-single-digit RevPAR growth for the remainder of the year. With new supply across Host Hotels’ markets and chain scales near historic lows, the demand mix should support continued rate-led growth beyond event-driven periods.
Accretive capital recycling: Host Hotels continues to sell lower-growth assets with elevated capital needs and redeploy capital toward higher-quality hotels and portfolio reinvestment. In the second quarter of 2026, Host Hotels sold the Sheraton Parsippany Hotel for $12 million.
From 2021 through 2026, dispositions totaled $2.9 billion at a 16.5x EBITDA multiple compared with $3.3 billion of acquisitions at 13.3x. Over that period, Host Hotels disposed of 17 assets and avoided an estimated $710 million of near-term capital spending while acquiring 12 fee-simple assets in six new markets with no notable near-term capital needs. This discipline, combined with Host Hotels’ liquidity and all-cash buying capacity, should preserve flexibility to pursue opportunities without weakening return standards.
Balance sheet flexibility: Host Hotels maintains an investment-grade balance sheet that provides capacity to reinvest and return capital. As of June 30, 2026, total debt was about $5.1 billion, with a weighted average maturity of 4.7 years and a weighted average interest rate of 4.8%. The company had no debt maturities in 2026.
Adjusted for the $630 million regular and special dividend payment in July 2026, total available liquidity was about $3 billion. Net leverage was 2.2x on a credit facility basis after the July 2026 dividend. The consolidated portfolio remained 99% unencumbered. This liquidity profile should allow Host Hotels to fund its 2026 capital program while retaining capacity for acquisitions, dividends and share repurchases.
Capital return through dividends: Host Hotels continues to return capital through regular and special dividends. In July 2026, the company paid a 20 cents-per-share regular quarterly dividend and a 72 cents-per-share special dividend tied to the taxable gain from the Four Seasons dispositions.
Since reintroducing the dividend in 2022, Host Hotels has paid about $3.1 billion in dividends through July 2026. Together, these dividends demonstrate the company’s continued commitment to returning excess capital to shareholders.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DLR’s 2026 FFO per share is pinned at $8.40. This indicates year-over-year growth of 13.67%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WELL’s 2026 FFO per share is pegged at $6.42. This calls for a year-over-year increase of 21.36%.
Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of reits.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Bigstock
4 Reasons to Add Host Hotels Stock to Your Portfolio Now
Key Takeaways
Host Hotels & Resorts (HST - Free Report) owns a diversified portfolio of luxury and upper-upscale hotels in major urban and resort markets, supporting rate-led growth from leisure, group and business travel.
Analysts seem bullish on this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock. The estimate revision trend for 2026 adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share indicates a favorable outlook, with estimates moving north over the past month.
Over the past six months, shares of Host Hotels have increased 15.1%, outperforming the industry’s 2.8% growth. Given its solid fundamentals and positive estimate revisions, the stock is likely to maintain its momentum in the quarters ahead.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
What Makes Host Hotels a Solid Choice?
Demand visibility: Host Hotels benefits from a diversified mix of urban, resort and convention properties across top 21 U.S. markets, supporting leisure, group and business demand. In the second quarter of 2026, transient room revenues increased 6.9%, while group room revenues rose 7.4% as both rates and room nights advanced. Definite group room nights on the books for 2026 reached 3.8 million, up 8% since the first quarter of 2026, and total group revenue pace was more than 5% above the same time last year.
In the second quarter of 2026, comparable hotel revenues per available room (RevPAR) rose 7% year over year and comparable hotel Total RevPAR increased 5.9%. Management raised full-year 2026 comparable hotel RevPAR and Total RevPAR growth guidance to 4.75% to 5.25% and expects mid-single-digit RevPAR growth for the remainder of the year. With new supply across Host Hotels’ markets and chain scales near historic lows, the demand mix should support continued rate-led growth beyond event-driven periods.
Accretive capital recycling: Host Hotels continues to sell lower-growth assets with elevated capital needs and redeploy capital toward higher-quality hotels and portfolio reinvestment. In the second quarter of 2026, Host Hotels sold the Sheraton Parsippany Hotel for $12 million.
From 2021 through 2026, dispositions totaled $2.9 billion at a 16.5x EBITDA multiple compared with $3.3 billion of acquisitions at 13.3x. Over that period, Host Hotels disposed of 17 assets and avoided an estimated $710 million of near-term capital spending while acquiring 12 fee-simple assets in six new markets with no notable near-term capital needs. This discipline, combined with Host Hotels’ liquidity and all-cash buying capacity, should preserve flexibility to pursue opportunities without weakening return standards.
Balance sheet flexibility: Host Hotels maintains an investment-grade balance sheet that provides capacity to reinvest and return capital. As of June 30, 2026, total debt was about $5.1 billion, with a weighted average maturity of 4.7 years and a weighted average interest rate of 4.8%. The company had no debt maturities in 2026.
Adjusted for the $630 million regular and special dividend payment in July 2026, total available liquidity was about $3 billion. Net leverage was 2.2x on a credit facility basis after the July 2026 dividend. The consolidated portfolio remained 99% unencumbered. This liquidity profile should allow Host Hotels to fund its 2026 capital program while retaining capacity for acquisitions, dividends and share repurchases.
Capital return through dividends: Host Hotels continues to return capital through regular and special dividends. In July 2026, the company paid a 20 cents-per-share regular quarterly dividend and a 72 cents-per-share special dividend tied to the taxable gain from the Four Seasons dispositions.
Since reintroducing the dividend in 2022, Host Hotels has paid about $3.1 billion in dividends through July 2026. Together, these dividends demonstrate the company’s continued commitment to returning excess capital to shareholders.
Other Stocks to Consider
Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Digital Realty Trust (DLR - Free Report) and Welltower (WELL - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DLR’s 2026 FFO per share is pinned at $8.40. This indicates year-over-year growth of 13.67%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WELL’s 2026 FFO per share is pegged at $6.42. This calls for a year-over-year increase of 21.36%.
Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of reits.