Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index up 6.5% in January

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index reported a 6.5-percent increase in January to 2,608. The index ended 2012 at 2,448. Robert W. Baird and Co. and STR partnered to create the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index—the first widely available U.S. hotel stock index in the hotel industry.

HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee, and MILWAUKEE -- The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index reported a 6.5-percent increase in January to 2,608. The index ended 2012 at 2,448.

Robert W. Baird and Co. and STR partnered to create the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index—the first widely available U.S. hotel stock index in the hotel industry. The index combines Baird’s financial markets expertise, the data processing of STR and the up-to-the-minute distribution capabilities of HotelNewsNow.com, the industry’s leading hotel news website.

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index outperformed both the MSCI REIT (RMZ) (+3.5 percent) and the S&P 500 (+5.0 percent) in January.

“The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index started 2013 on a positive note,” said Randy Smith, co-founder and chairman at STR. “With positive performance expected for 2013, investors are keeping an eye on the industry. And we are forecasting favorable performance increases across the board, most notably in average daily rate and revenue per available room.”

"Hotel stocks started the year on a strong note and outperformed for the third consecutive month," said David Loeb, senior hotel research analyst and managing director at Baird. "With the fiscal cliff averted and the debt ceiling delayed, we expect investors to be focused on management teams' 2013 outlooks with fourth-quarter reporting season just around the corner; supply-and-demand fundamentals remain favorable, but valuation keeps us cautious especially after the recent run up in stock prices."

About the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index
The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index was set to equal 1,000 on 1 January 2000, as its starting point. The Index reached its peak of 3,178 on 5 July 2007. The Index’s lowest point occurred on 6 March 2009, when it dropped to 573.

The Index is available exclusively on and . The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index is a cobranded index created by Robert W. Baird & Co. (Baird) and Smith Travel Research, Inc. (STR). The market-cap weighted Index is comprised of 15 of the largest market capitalization hotel companies publicly traded on a U.S. exchange and attempts to characterize the performance of hotel stocks. The Index is maintained by Baird and is hosted on HotelNewsNow.com. The Index is not actively managed and a direct investment cannot be made in it.

The companies that comprise the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index: Choice Hotels International, DiamondRock Hospitality, Hersha Hospitality Trust, Hospitality Properties Trust, Host Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, LaSalle Hotel Properties, Marriott International, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, RLJ Lodging Trust, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Sunstone Hotel Investors and Wyndham Worldwide.

About Baird
Baird is an employee-owned, international wealth management, capital markets, private equity and asset management firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Established in 1919, Baird has more than 2,700 associates serving the needs of individual, corporate, institutional and municipal clients. Baird had nearly $99 billion in client assets on Dec. 31, 2012. Committed to being a great place to work, Baird ranked No. 14 on FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2013 – its tenth consecutive year on the list. Baird’s principal operating subsidiaries are Robert W. Baird & Co. in the United States and Robert W. Baird Group Ltd. in Europe. Baird also has an operating subsidiary in Asia supporting Baird’s investment banking and private equity operations. For more information, please visit Baird’s Web site at .

About STR
STR () provides clients—including hotel operators, developers, financiers, analysts and suppliers to the hotel industry—access to hotel research with regular and custom reports covering the United States, Canada, Mexico and Caribbean. STR provides a single source of global hotel data covering daily and monthly performance data, forecasts, annual profitability, pipeline and census information. STR founded the STR family of companies and is proudly associated with STR Global, RRC Associates, STR Analytics, and HotelNewsNow.com. STR also founded the Hotel Data Conference (), which will be held 3-4 August 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Markets & Performance Markets & Performance USA & Canada United States

CoStar Group is a global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, online marketplaces, and 3D digital twin technology. Founded in 1986, CoStar Group is dedicated to digitizing the world’s real estate, empowering all people to discover properties, insights, and connections that improve their businesses and lives. CoStar Group’s major brands include CoStar, a leading global provider of commercial real estate data, analytics, and...