Intercontinental Hotels Share Price (IHG)

A cheery update from Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) showed revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key metric rose by 5.2% in 2012 with operating profits also 10% higher, but even for hotel groups it often better to travel than to arrive, and in IHG’s case the news put the brakes on the recent relentless bull run.

InterContinental Hotels Group: Citigroup increases target price from 1900p to 2200p retaining its buy recommendation.

Heaven only knows why you are publishing all of this - no one is reading it. Sometimes, it would be better to give a concise opinion rather than swathes of text. That's not to say you are not proffering a useful service. But the format can do with some pruning. Good day.

InterContinental Hotels Group: Morgan Stanley raises target price from 1850p to 2200p keeping an overweight rating. Exane BNP ups target price from 1900p to 2100p, while leaving its outperform rating unchanged.

IHG's figures yesterday nevertheless suggest that the group is moving ahead on all the relevant metrics. Revenues per room were up 5.2 per cent, both the United States and China doing better than the average despite some fourth-quarter underperformance in the latter because of the change of leadership in Beijing and a dispute with Japan. The positive trends continued into January, although there was an extra kick-up in China from the timing of the New Year. Long-term prospects, in terms of the growth of emerging markets, are there. But until financing comes back into the global hotel market, growth in net rooms will be constrained at 2 to 3 per cent a year. On just under 20 times' this year's earnings, the shares look up with events. Hold, says The Times's Tempus.

Since the company decided to sell its estate of hotels to concentrate on managing them InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has returned 9 billion dollars to shareholders. The idea was that a hotels manager did not actually need to own the property. The above numbers suggest that was right. But the well is about to run dry. IHG has two more properties going through the sale process, on London's Park Lane and in New York, this last delayed when a buyer dropped out.