Barclays sees potential investment bargains in battered and bruised hotel stocks, clobbered by the coronavirus as both business and leisure travel plunged amid the lockdowns.

Barclays analyst Anthony Powell upgraded Marriott International (MAR) and Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT) to “overweight” from “equal weight” earlier this week, and raised his price target to $105 from $92 for Marriott and to $90 from $82 for Hilton, Barron’s reported.  Marriott closed Friday at $80.94 while Hilton was at $71.16.

Powell believes that any near-term selloffs on concerns about COVID-19 are buying opportunities.

“In the near term, these companies should benefit from improving demand trends for U.S. select-service hotels and resort destinations; next year, the companies should more fully price in a return of corporate and group travel,” Powell was quoted by Barron’s as saying.

He contends that history tells investors that now could be a good time to buy. “The best time to invest in lodging stocks is usually ahead of the start of the cycle and in the early innings of the cycle. A year from now, we expect the stocks to be higher as investors start to look forward to the return of corporate and group travel, improved unit growth and an increase in hotel acquisition activity.”

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