Marriott International tops 4Q profit and revenue expectations

Marriott International Inc. on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations, sending its stock higher in extended trading.

The Bethesda, Maryland-based hotel company reported net income of $197 million, or 68 cents a share. That was up from $151 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 11 percent to $3.56 billion in the period from $3.22 billion.

The results in the latest quarter exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 65 cents per share on revenue of $3.47 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $753 million, or $2.54 per share. Revenue was reported as $13.8 billion.

Marriott expects to earn 68 cents to 72 cents a share in the current quarter and post full-year 2015 earnings in the range of $3 to $3.12 per share. Analysts were expecting 65 cents a share for the quarter and $3.03 a share for the year, according to FactSet.

Its stock rose $2.60, or 3.2 percent, to $84.05 in after-market trading following the release of the earnings report.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MAR at http://www.zacks.com/ap/MAR

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Keywords: Marriott International, Earnings Report