As the holiday season approaches more and more individuals are going to be inclined to sleeping in hotels due to the abundance of travel. In reference to such action, a claim can be made that a stock like Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (HOT) would be a terrific equity to look upon given the festive situation. In all fairness, such argument made not only has strong economic validity but stimulates the notion of stock, in addition to fundamental and technical analysis, which contains the proper resources to become a very rewarding purchase.

Looking at just the economic situation which presents itself during this type of year is almost a perfect condition relative to what Starwood desires. Not only is it the time of year when many hotels are active, but because Starwood has a global presence in countries such as the Bahamas and Mexico, with the depreciating dollar there should be much rejoice for shareholders of this company. When a depreciated dollar is put against other currencies such at the peso, more Americans are going to be willing to convert their money to the peso, allowing for a higher margin of profit relative to just a normal situation. As that happens, sentiment may improve for these currency exchangers and more money may be placed in more luxury hotels such as ones which Starwood owns. Thus the coupled effect of the holiday season and the depreciating dollar makes a truly optimistic situation for what Starwood may see and reap in the future.

As I say such a statement, many of you, as investors, may argue that all luxury hotels such as Starwood should receive the same accolades and praise, especially if they are located in foreign markets. True to an extent, what Starwood provides that other companies do not can be understood on the basis of fundamentals. With solid revenue, gross profit, and operating income margin growth over the last three years relative to its income statement, and a nice 6% increase of net income over the last year relative to the cash piling in, Starwood has solid fundamentals which should not be frowned upon. There may be some questions regarding a below one current ratio for this year, but, in terms of the long run, Starwood has seen growth relative to its total assets and a decrease in growth relative to its total liabilities which should be beneficial to long shareholders. The real celebration point can be found with Starwood's P/E ratio.

Standing below a near amazing number of about 15, none of its competitors such as Choice Hotels, Hilton, or Marriot comes close. It's true that Starwood has a forward ratio of around 26 which is now comparable to its rivals, but there is still money to be earned regarding the current price. What also makes Starwood interesting is that out of the three competitors I mentioned all of them have a lower share price value than this hotel chain. Such may make an investor wary when thinking of buying shares, but even with a share price that high, you would have to double the P/E ratio of Starwood to come across these other company's number. Some may say that Starwood is an old company to try and find some kind of loophole, but if you make a comparable chart of Starwood versus Hilton for example, you would see that Hilton, an IPO in 1983 still produces figures much lower than the Starwood enterprise which subsequently was an IPO in 1988. Thus, after looking at the fundamentals and competition, in terms of these criterions, Starwood looks pretty appealing.

Moving on to technical analysis, an investor may soon realize that there is no real trend that he or she can follow compared to a Goldman Sachs for example. Nevertheless, I have found a few areas which should be supportive of my claim to label Starwood as a strong buy. Over the past two years it becomes noticeable that Starwood appears to have some kind of up and down cycle with a relevant resistance level of about 64 and a support level of near 52. However, over the past three months Starwood has grown in terms of share price from 54 to 65. Previously, the share price would rise for two months to its resistance level then fall back the next two months to its support level. Such a trend has seemed to have diminished as a trend of about three months, using a 50 day average level, indicates that the share price has grown a significant amount and intends to surpass its resistance level in favor of a strong rally. More evidence to support such a claim can be found with volume research, illustrating that a lot of investors, even during times of pessimism, are not selling their shares.

For example, during the vicious share price drop in April of 2006, volume for that day was actually relatively normal. The same can be said about the drop in mid June. However, during September when Starwood experienced a spike in terms of share price, volume for that day was over and above the volume for the noted losses, signaling that a lot of institutions are still bullish on this company. In addition to that, the day with this most volume over the past year, October 26th, the day the company reported quarterly earnings, illustrated, even with some pessimism only a slight drop in its share price. As such happened, the market seemed to ignore or take positives from the news and continued to have a strong influence on the rally of this company. Thus through such analysis, much can be said that while the technical aspects are not 100% concrete, there are still some positive factors to look at regarding this company when deciding about your next purchase.

Overall because of the holiday season and depreciating dollar with the global presence, strong fundamentals relative to its competitors, and some interesting findings related to the technical part of research, Starwood earns my approval as a company I would label as a strong buy. It's true the United States economy is slowing down relative to the rest of the world, but the rest of the world still means a lot of profit for companies like Starwood to be earned.