Hilton Lifts Sales Forecast but Elections, Iran War Could Hurt 4Q -- Update

By Kelly Cloonan

Hilton Worldwide bumped up its outlook for the year but gave a bleak outlook for the current fourth quarter.

The hotel operator said it expects the midterm elections and the war in the Middle East to drag on results for the current period, forecasting a lower profit than Wall Street is projecting.

The stock fell 5.1% to $334 in premarket trading on Tuesday.

Hilton said it now projects comparable revenue per available room--or RevPar, a key industry metric--to grow 4% to 4.5% for the full year, up from a prior forecast for a 3% to 3.5% increase. The company now expects full-year adjusted earnings per share of $9.07 and $9.13, up from $8.89 to $9.01 previously.

For the fourth quarter, Hilton forecast comparable RevPar growth of 3% to 3.5%. The company also projected adjusted per-share earnings between $2.32 and $2.38, compared with analyst views for $2.39, according to FactSet.

The outlook came as Hilton posted higher profit and revenue in the third quarter, helped by higher occupancy and average daily rates as well as the World Cup.

"Our results were driven by momentum across our system, which we expect to continue for the remainder of the year and into 2027," Chief Executive Christopher Nassetta said.

Third-quarter profit was $536 million, or $2.37 a share, compared with $420 million, or $1.78 a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings per share were $2.45, compared with analyst estimates of $2.37.

Revenue rose to $3.33 billion from $3.12 billion, compared with analyst estimates of $3.37 billion.

RevPar increased 5.8%, boosted by an increase in both occupancy and average daily rates for hotel rooms. The metric benefited from the World Cup as well as calendar and holiday shifts, Hilton said.

Management and franchise fee revenues rose 9.5%.

During the quarter, Hilton opened 182 hotels, totaling 27,000 rooms. Nassetta said the period marked the company's highest quarter ever for organic openings.

Write to Kelly Cloonan at kelly.cloonan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 27, 2026 07:03 ET (11:03 GMT)