RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Short Interest Down 20.7% in September

by · The Markets Daily

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ – Get Free Report) saw a large decline in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 10,670,000 shares, a decline of 20.7% from the September 15th total of 13,450,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,560,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.8 days. Currently, 7.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of RLJ Lodging Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RLJ. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. raised its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 131.1% during the 2nd quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 3,311,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,888,000 after buying an additional 1,878,616 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust by 1.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,236,820 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $298,299,000 after acquiring an additional 420,428 shares during the period. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC raised its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 50.9% during the second quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC now owns 860,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,282,000 after acquiring an additional 290,000 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust by 17.6% in the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,554,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $18,373,000 after acquiring an additional 232,091 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management boosted its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 9.8% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,699,595 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,367,000 after purchasing an additional 152,395 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on RLJ shares. Wolfe Research downgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Compass Point cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.14.

Get Our Latest Report on RLJ

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of RLJ Lodging Trust stock traded up $0.04 on Tuesday, reaching $9.19. The stock had a trading volume of 2,309,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,385,038. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $9.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.87. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 1 year low of $8.79 and a 1 year high of $12.39.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.25). The business had revenue of $369.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $365.67 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 4.93% and a return on equity of 3.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 EPS for the current year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.53%. This is a positive change from RLJ Lodging Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 214.29%.

RLJ Lodging Trust Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

RLJ Lodging Trust is a self-advised, publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns primarily premium-branded, high-margin, focused-service and compact full-service hotels. The Company's portfolio currently consists of 96 hotels with approximately 21,200 rooms, located in 23 states and the District of Columbia and an ownership interest in one unconsolidated hotel with 171 rooms.

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