Wisconsin-The newly launched Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index ended May at 1619.749, an 11.3-percent decrease for the month and a 17.4-percent increase for year-to-date 2010.

Robert W. Baird & Co. (Baird) and STR have partnered to create the Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index-the first widely available U.S. hotel stock index in the industry. The index furthers the commitment to the hotel industry from both companies. It combines Baird’s financial markets expertise with the data processing of STR and the industry’s leading news website, HotelNewsNow.com.

“It is surprising how frequently we in the industry have one view of the outlook while investors have an entirely different view,” said Randy Smith, CEO at STR. “For example, industry stocks began rebounding long before improvements in RevPAR became the norm. This index will provide one more variable in developing an improved model to better understand where the industry is going and how we get there.”

“We are proud to be launching this new product in conjunction with STR. We’ve had the utmost respect for Randy Smith’s organization and a close relationship for many years,” said David Loeb, Managing Director of Baird’s hotel research platform. “We believe this index can help hotel industry professionals monitor investment values and gauge interest in hotel investment broadly.”