Hyatt Hotels Corp. H reported Thursday fourth-quarter profit that beat expectations by a wide margin, boosted by a noncash benefit of $250 million from the release of a valuation allowance on deferred taxes. Net income of $294 million, or $2.69 a share, compared with a net loss of $29 million, or 26 cents a share, in the year-ago period. The year-ago results is from the earnings release from February 2022, because the hotel operator didn’t provide year-ago results in the latest earnings press release or in the supplemental investor presentation. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $2.55 was above the FactSet consensus of 34 cents. Total revenue of $1.59 billion was up 47.6% from last year, and above the FactSet consensus of $1.52 billion. Comparable system-wide revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose 2.4% in the fourth quarter but fell 6.1% for 2022, when compared with pre-pandemic 2019 levels. The stock, which rose 2.1% in premarket trading, has rallied 24.6% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 SPX has advanced 4.8%.
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