London, June 12, 2026, 14:10 BST
- InterContinental Hotels Group PLC was up 3.02% at $165.25 on the London market at 13:53 BST.
- InterContinental Hotels Group bought back 20,000 ordinary shares on June 11, paying an average $162.7636 a share, and plans to cancel them.
- The next key event for investors is the earnings release set for Aug. 11. Second-quarter and first-half numbers are expected to shed more light on demand for summer travel.
Shares of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC pushed higher on Friday, last up 3.02% at $165.25 in London at 13:53 BST. The move outpaced a 1.1% gain in the FTSE 100, according to Reuters. The stock picked up as investors took in a new buyback disclosure and recent trading strength. IHG’s ordinary shares have traded in dollars on the London Stock Exchange since Jan. 2, after the company said the change better matches its dollar-based reporting.
IHG disclosed in a new filing it bought 20,000 shares on June 11 via Goldman Sachs International on the London Stock Exchange, paying prices from $161.30 to $163.95 a share. The company will cancel these shares, which leaves 149,363,876 ordinary shares outstanding, not counting treasury stock. Buybacks like this reduce the total share count, which can boost earnings per share if profit stays the same.
The buyback is stacking on top of good operating numbers, not just propping up the stock alone. In its May trading update, IHG said first-quarter global RevPAR jumped 4.4%. RevPAR—revenue per available room—is how hotels measure room revenue against their open capacity. Reuters said this beat the 3.3% growth forecast, with a lift from stronger business in the U.S. and Greater China. CEO Elie Maalouf called it a “very strong Q1 trading performance.” InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
Development is helping support the bull case. IHG said it opened 14,900 rooms at 82 hotels in Q1 and signed 21,400 rooms across 163 hotels. At the end of March, its global pipeline stood at 343,000 rooms in 2,347 hotels. IHG also announced a 100-room Holiday Inn in Mandi, India, and said it’s operating 52 hotels in India under seven brands, with another 98 in the pipeline for the next three to five years. Hotel signings don’t show up in earnings right away, but future openings grow the system and mean more potential fee income down the line.
Bulls see the main draws as more rooms, strong pricing, and capital returned. IHG said it finished $240 million of its planned $950 million buyback for 2026 by the end of the first quarter, cutting its voting rights by 1.1%. IHG’s own analyst consensus, taken after the Q1 update, put adjusted earnings per share for 2026 at 570 cents, up from 501.3 cents in 2025. Operating profit from reportable segments is forecast at $1.392 billion. Adjusted EPS removes some items to show underlying profit per share.
Valuation and the travel cycle are the big risk points. IHG’s Middle East RevPAR was down 2% in Q1 and plunged about 50% in April, Reuters said, though that region only makes up around 5% of IHG’s total business, and gains elsewhere cushioned the blow. IHG shares are at $165.25, trading near 29 times the 2026 consensus adjusted EPS of $5.70. That P/E ratio measures the share price against expected earnings. A higher multiple can make sense with good growth, but it raises the stakes if RevPAR cools, global trouble grows, or U.S. business travel drops.
IHG trades at levels that are more fair to slightly rich on the current numbers, so it doesn’t look like a clear bargain now. The buyback, Q1 RevPAR and project pipeline are all positives, but the stock price seems to already price in what investors expect from a steady travel group. The next thing to watch is the Aug. 11 earnings—investors will focus on Q2 RevPAR, demand in the U.S. and China, signs of a rebound in the Middle East, the speed of buybacks and whether management still feels good about the profit outlook.
