Ian Tam: The Chicago Cubs are a baseball team based in Chicago, also, the headquarters of Morningstar.
Sylvester Flood: It's June in Chicago. The weather is hot, and the Cubs are hot. We're hoping for another World Series victory in 2021. If the Cubs can't win the World Series though, our next best hope is to eliminate the dreaded St. Louis Cardinals from contention.
Tam: Well, you're clearly invested into this, but maybe you can invest in the team in a different way, perhaps through one of their sponsors, Marriott. If you did, would you be a champion?
The Marriott International hotel chain has a strong brand and a narrow economic moat. At present, its stock is trading above our fair value of $130.
Dan Wasiolek: The summer outlook for Marriott looks encouraging as U.S. industry hotel demand appears to have accelerated recently, aided by improving vaccination rates and lifting of mask mandates in the region. This view is evidenced by Las Vegas hotel rooms being sold out through the summer and Marriott peer Hyatt recently commenting that most of its U.S. hotels are seeing summer bookings back to 2019 levels. That said, we think this demand improvement is more than reflected in Marriott's shares, which trade at a slight premium to our $130 fair value estimate.
Tam: There you have it. If you want to invest in the Chicago Cubs through Marriott, your portfolio might just stay solid.