New index is first U.S. hotel stock index
Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. and Smith Travel Research Inc. (STR) have launched the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index, the first widely available U.S. hotel stock index in the financial industry. The index combines Baird’s knowledge of the financial markets with STR’s data processing.
“We believe this index can help hotel industry professionals monitor investment values and gauge interest in hotel investment broadly,” said David Loeb, managing director of Baird’s hotel research platform.
The newly launched Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index ended May at 1619.749, an 11.3-percent decrease for the month and a 17.4-percent increase for year-to-date 2010.
“It is surprising how frequently we in the industry have one view of the outlook while investors have an entirely different view,” said Randy Smith, CEO at STR. “For example, industry stocks began rebounding long before improvements in RevPAR became the norm. This index will provide one more variable in developing an improved model to better understand where the industry is going and how we get there.”
