In this article, we discuss the 5 stocks to buy in April according to Jim Cramer. If you want to read about some stocks that Jim Cramer is buying, go directly to 10 Stocks to Buy in April According to Jim Cramer.
5. Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 43
Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) owns and runs hotels and resorts. Jim Cramer brought up the stock during the Discussed Stock segment of his show on April 11, noting that the stock was trading at 30 times earnings but predicted that it would grow at a high rate as travel activity resumed around the world. He also placed it among a group of stocks likely to offer investors growth at a reasonable price.
On February 16, Wells Fargo analyst Dori Kesten maintained an Overweight rating on Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) stock and raised the price target to $199 from $185, noting that “exposure to business transient/group and higher-end properties” had positioned the firm for outsized growth in the coming months.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, 43 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $2.872 billion in Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR), up from 39 in the previous quarter worth $2.878 billion.
In its Q4 2021 investor letter, LRT Capital Management, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) is the world’s largest hotel company followed closely by Hilton (HLT) and Intercontinental Hotels Group plc (IHG). The company owns a portfolio of brands from the low end (Courtyard, SpringHill Suites, Aloft), through the mid-tier (Marriott, Sheraton, Westin, Renaissance Hotels), to the luxury high end (JW Marriot, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis). In total the company had 7,642 properties with over 1.4 million rooms as of the end of Q1 2021.
The majority (85%) of Marriott’s revenue comes from hotels in the United States, with the rest almost evenly split between Asia Pacific and Europe. Like it’s smaller peer, Hilton, the company today is almost exclusively a manager and franchisor of hotels, not a hotel owner. The company owns 66 hotels, manages 2,083 and franchises 5,493. Like all franchise-based businesses Marriott requires very little capital to grow as it utilizes the investment capital of its hotel-owners/partners to expand. Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) currently faces a difficult operating environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty about the future of business travel. However, the company is an excellent operator with a somewhat leveraged capital structure (the company acquired Starwood Properties in late 2016) – if pent-up demand for travel materializes post-Covid, as we expect it will, the company will quickly go from losing money to raking in profits.”
