At a glance
Choice Hotels International Inc is worth $4.90B, about 14 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 0.8% to $1.60B in fiscal 2025, with 23.2% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 15.6% a year. It pays a 1.05% dividend yield, and returned $1.57B to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +16.9% over the past year with dividends reinvested and −3.6% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 50.5% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 32.2% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 8 months and 26 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
Choice Hotels is mainly a hotel franchisor: it licenses its brand names to independent hotel owners rather than owning the hotels. Its brands include Comfort Inn, Quality, Econo Lodge, Cambria, WoodSpring Suites, Ascend Collection and Radisson. As of December 31, 2025, the system had 7,575 open hotels with 656,825 rooms across 49 states, the District of Columbia and 50 countries and territories. Another 825 hotels were in the pipeline (planned or under construction).
Hotel owners pay Choice fees based on their room revenue or number of rooms, plus marketing and reservation fees. Franchise and management fees made up 42.2% of fiscal 2025 revenue of about $1.6 billion. Another 38.6% was reimbursable costs: fees Choice must spend on system-wide advertising and reservation systems, plus payroll costs repaid by hotels it manages. Owned hotels brought in 7.6%, partnerships with vendors and travel partners 7.1%, and other sources 4.5%.
Because fees track room revenue, results rise and fall with occupancy and room rates. They are usually weaker from November through February. Revenue is concentrated in the U.S. Abroad, Choice often uses master franchisees that sub-license its brands in a region. It also owns a small number of hotels, including 10 Cambria and four Everhome Suites properties, to build those brands, but it does not plan to hold them permanently.
Price history
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CHH +16.9% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Franchise and management fees | $673.2M | 42.2% |
| Revenue for reimbursable costs from franchised and managed properties | $616.2M | 38.6% |
| Owned hotels | $121.4M | 7.6% |
| Partnership services and fees | $113.8M | 7.1% |
| Other | $72.2M | 4.5% |
Latest results
- In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 30, 2026), revenue was $458.3M, up 2.5% from a year earlier, and net income was $57.9M (-67.8%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $1.60B (+0.8% year over year; +15.6% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 23.2% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +15.6% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 28.1% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 10.2% good |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 204.1% (lifted by a small equity base, often the result of years of buybacks) good |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 12.7% good |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $-2.01B weak |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $774.1M | $75.4M | $76.5M |
| FY2021 | $1.07B | $289.0M | $309.4M |
| FY2022 | $1.40B | $332.2M | $301.2M |
| FY2023 | $1.54B | $258.5M | $228.0M |
| FY2024 | $1.58B | $299.7M | $212.7M |
| FY2025 | $1.60B | $369.9M | $163.6M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $4.90B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 13.9 |
| Dividend yield | 1.05% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Choice Hotels International’s market value went from $3.14B at the end of 2016 to $4.90B on Oct 28, 2026, up 56%; since the end of 2025 it is up 11%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $4.90B | +11.1% |
| 2025 | $4.41B | -33.8% |
| 2024 | $6.66B | +18.0% |
| 2023 | $5.64B | -6.0% |
| 2022 | $6.00B | -30.8% |
| 2021 | $8.68B | +46.6% |
| 2020 | $5.92B | +2.7% |
| 2019 | $5.76B | +43.9% |
| 2018 | $4.01B | -8.8% |
| 2017 | $4.39B | +39.7% |
| 2016 | $3.14B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHH price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +16.8% | +16.9% | +0.9% | -3.6% | +9.9% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +16.8% |
| 2025 | -32.3% |
| 2024 | +26.2% |
| 2023 | +1.6% |
| 2022 | -26.9% |
| 2021 | +46.8% |
| 2020 | +3.6% |
| 2019 | +46.0% |
| 2018 | -6.7% |
| 2017 | +40.3% |
| 2016 | +13.1% |
| 2015 | -8.7% |
| 2014 | +15.8% |
| 2013 | +48.7% |
| 2012 | +20.7% |
| 2011 | +1.6% |
| 2010 | +23.6% |
| 2009 | +8.1% |
| 2008 | -6.7% |
| 2007 | -19.9% |
| 2006 | +2.0% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 40% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 49.1%, back to its old high 18.4 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 50.5% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 50.5%, back to its old high 8.4 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 22.1% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 32.2%, back to its old high 26 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-11-03 to 2026-11-03 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 2 sales ($678K), 1 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 18, 2026 | William L Jews Director | sell | $541K |
| Oct 20, 2026 | Dominic Dragisich President & CEO, Director | sell (plan) | $137K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| BAMCO INC /NY/ | 20.5% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Morgan Stanley | 6.3% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management, LLC | 2% | Jun 30, 2026 |
ETFs with the most weight in CHH
| LSAT Leadershares Alphafactor Tactical Focused ETF | 3.38% |
| XMLV Invesco S&P MidCap Low Volatility ETF | 0.95% |
| HSMV First Trust Horizon Managed Volatility Small/Mid ETF | 0.64% |
| QMID WisdomTree U.S. MidCap Quality Growth Fund | 0.63% |
| RFG Invesco S&P MidCap 400® Pure Growth ETF | 0.56% |
| USMF WisdomTree US Multifactor Fund | 0.47% |
| PAMC Pacer Lunt MidCap Multi-Factor Alternator ETF | 0.46% |
| FNY First Trust Mid Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund | 0.44% |
What could go wrong
- Depends on the health of franchisees. Hotel owners pay Choice's fees. If they struggle financially, skip needed upgrades, dispute terms or end contracts, fee income and brand reputation could suffer. Advances Choice makes to franchisees may not be repaid.
- A large debt load. As of June 30, 2026, total debt was about $2.0 billion, against $43 million of cash and investments. If cash flow weakens, debt payments could squeeze dividends and buybacks, and refinancing may be harder.
- Owning and financing hotels adds real estate risk. To grow newer brands such as Cambria and Everhome Suites, Choice owns hotels and offers developers loans, investments and guarantees. These could cause losses and cut against its asset-light model, which normally needs little capital.
- Online and AI booking sites. More travelers book through third-party websites, including AI-enabled services. That could weaken loyalty to Choice brands and its own reservation channels, and force changes in its distribution strategy that could hurt results.
- Franchise growth could stall. Choice's growth plan relies on adding hotels and raising the fee rates owners pay. Tough competition, damage to brand reputations, or new brands that owners and guests don't embrace could slow that growth.
- Fees rise and fall with travel demand. A large share of revenue comes from fees tied to room revenue at franchised hotels. A weaker economy, inflation or natural disasters could cut occupancy and room rates, and with them Choice's fees.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change
- Executive or board change
- Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change
- Bylaws or fiscal year changed; Shareholder vote results
- Executive or board change
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change
For income and retirement investors
Choice Hotels pays a small dividend, yielding 1.05% as of October 28, 2026. The regular dividend held at $1.15 per share in fiscal 2023, 2024 and 2025, so there is no streak of annual increases, though it rose from about $0.46 in fiscal 2020. The fiscal 2025 dividend used 14.5% of earnings and 32.7% of free cash flow (cash left after running and investing in the business). Free cash flow fell from $309 million in fiscal 2021 to $164 million in fiscal 2025. Share buybacks are far larger: $1.33 billion over fiscal 2021–2025, versus $243 million in dividends. The share count fell about 19% between July 2021 and July 2026.
The stock has fallen hard in downturns: 49% in the 2008 financial crisis (18 months to recover from the low), 51% in the 2020 COVID crash (8 months) and 32% in the 2022 bear market (26 months). A single stock carries more risk than a diversified fund.
Questions investors ask
How does Choice Hotels make money?
Mostly by franchising. Hotel owners license Choice brands such as Comfort Inn, Quality and Econo Lodge and pay fees based on their room revenue or room count. In fiscal 2025, franchise and management fees were 42.2% of revenue of about $1.6 billion. Reimbursable costs, which Choice must spend on system-wide marketing, reservations and managed-hotel payroll, were 38.6%. Owned hotels added 7.6%, and partnerships with vendors and travel partners added 7.1%.
Does Choice Hotels raise its dividend every year?
No. The regular dividend was $1.15 per share in each of fiscal 2023, 2024 and 2025, after rising from about $0.45 in fiscal 2021 and $0.95 in fiscal 2022. The payout was low in fiscal 2025: 14.5% of earnings and 32.7% of free cash flow. The yield was 1.05% as of October 28, 2026. Choice returns much more cash through share buybacks, $1.33 billion over fiscal 2021–2025, than through dividends, $243 million.
What hotel brands does Choice Hotels own?
Choice's brands include Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn, Clarion, Cambria Hotels, Ascend Collection, WoodSpring Suites, Everhome Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Studios, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson and several Radisson brands. Most hotels carrying these names belong to franchisees. Choice itself owned only a handful, including 10 Cambria and four Everhome Suites hotels, as of December 31, 2025. It says it does not plan to own hotels permanently.
How much debt does Choice Hotels have?
About $2.0 billion as of June 30, 2026, against roughly $43 million in cash and investments. Shareholders' equity was only about $142 million, compared with total assets of about $3.0 billion. A small equity base makes return on equity (profit divided by shareholders' equity) look extremely high: 204% for fiscal 2025. Choice warns that debt payments could limit its flexibility, including its ability to pay dividends and repurchase shares. A filing dated August 28, 2026 reported a new debt obligation.
How has Choice Hotels stock performed?
Well over 10 years, poorly over five. As of October 28, 2026, the share price was up 156% over 10 years, about 9.9% a year, but down 17% over five years. It fell 32.3% in 2025 and was up 16.8% in 2026 through October 28. Swings can be large: the deepest drop over the past three years was 45.5%. The shares traded at 13.9 times fiscal 2025 earnings, for a market value of about $4.95 billion.