Hilton Worldwide Tops Q2 Earnings View - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Hospitality company Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT) Wednesday reported second-quarter net income of $161 million or 16 cents per share, compared to $209 million or 21 cents a share a year ago.

Adjusted for special items, earnings per share was up 19 percent to 25 cents. On average, 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of 23 cents for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter grew 15 percent to $777 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin increased 320 basis points.

Hilton posted revenues of $2.922 billion for the second quarter, higher than last year's $2.667 billion. Analysts expected revenues of $2.92 billion. System-wide comparable RevPAR increased 5.2 percent for the quarter, on a currency neutral basis.

Looking ahead, for the full year, the company said it expects earnings per share, adjusted for special items, in the range of $0.80-$0.84. It now expects adjusted EBITDA to be between $2.820 billion and $2.870 billion, an increase of $20 million at the midpoint adjusting for the sale of the Hilton Sydney.

For the third quarter, earnings per share, adjusted for special items, is projected in the range of $0.21-$0.23 and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $730 million - $750 million.

Hilton Worldwide added it initiated a regular quarterly cash dividend with the announcement on July 29, 2015, of a dividend of $0.07 per share, payable on or before September 25, 2015 to stockholders of record on August 14, 2015.