4 Reasons to Add Host Hotels Stock to Your Portfolio Now

Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. HST boasts a portfolio of luxury and upper-upscale hotels located across top U.S. markets and the Sunbelt region. The improved group travel and business transient demand for the company’s well-located properties in markets with strong demand drivers positions it well for growth. Also, aggressive capital-recycling efforts and a healthy balance sheet augur well.

Analysts seem bullish on this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its 2025 funds from operations (FFO) per share has been raised 4 cents over the past month to $2.04. Given its solid fundamentals and positive estimate revisions, the stock is likely to keep performing well in the quarters ahead.

Over the past six months, shares of this Bethesda, MD-based lodging real estate investment trust (REIT) have gained 14.1% compared with the industry's rise of 3.2%.

Factors That Make Host Hotels a Solid Pick

Advantageous Locations & Healthy Operating Performance: Host Hotels has a strong Sunbelt exposure and presence in the top 21 U.S. markets. Its properties are advantageously located in central business districts of major cities with proximity to airports and resort/conference destinations, thus driving demand.

The improvement in group and transient demand, including leisure and resort, has aided occupancy and revenue per available (RevPAR) growth at the company’s properties over the past few quarters. The company expects low single-digit RevPAR growth in the fourth quarter of 2025. In 2025, the company expects comparable hotel RevPAR growth of approximately 3%.

Given the solid demand for Host Hotels properties in strategic locations and healthy operating performance, it is well-positioned to ride the growth curve in the near term.

Capital-Recycling Efforts: Through its capital-recycling program, the company has made concerted efforts to dispose of non-strategic assets that have lower growth potential or properties with significant capital expenditure requirements. It has redeployed the proceeds to acquire or invest in better-yielding assets, highlighting its prudent capital-management practices.

Per the company’s November 2025 Investor Presentation, from 2021 through Nov. 5, 2025, total dispositions amounted to $1.8 billion, which is 16.8 times the EBITDA multiple. Its acquisitions during this period amounted to $3.3 billion, which is 13.3 times the EBITDA multiple.

Balance Sheet & ROE Strength: Host Hotels maintains a healthy balance sheet. It exited the third quarter of 2025 with $2.2 billion of total available liquidity. Moreover, it is the only company with an investment-grade rating among lodging REITs. It enjoys investment-grade ratings of Baa2/Stable from Moody’s, BBB-/Stable from S&P Global and BBB/Stable from Fitch, rendering access to the debt market at favorable costs. Hence, with ample financial flexibility, this REIT is well-positioned to carry on with its growth opportunities.

Moreover, its trailing 12-month return on equity is 11.11%, well ahead of the industry’s average of 2.71%. This indicates that the company is more efficient in using shareholders’ funds than its peers.

Encouraging Dividend Distributions: Solid dividend payouts are the biggest attraction for REIT investors, and Host Hotels remained committed to that. After a brief suspension of its dividend payments during the pandemic, the company reinstated its dividend payment and resorted to regular dividend hikes, bringing the dividend payment on par with the pre-pandemic level of 20 cents per share in December 2023.

Encouragingly, Host Hotels has increased its dividend eight times in the last five years and has a 40% payout ratio. This reaffirms shareholders’ confidence in this lodging REIT. Check out Host Hotels & Resorts’ dividend history here.

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Cousins Properties CUZ and Digital Realty Trust DLR, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CUZ’s 2025 FFO per share has moved a cent northward to $2.84 over the past week.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for DLR’s 2025 FFO per share has moved 2 cents upward to $7.35 over the past month.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.
 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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