RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Short Interest Update

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

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:RLJ remained flat at $9.15 during midday trading on Monday. The stock had a trading volume of 2,143,205 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,380,370. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.89. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 52-week low of $8.79 and a 52-week high of $12.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. The stock has a market cap of $1.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.69.

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

RLJ Lodging Trust Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This is an increase from RLJ Lodging Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.56%. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 230.78%.

Institutional Trading of RLJ Lodging Trust

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 86.5% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 125,076 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,478,000 after purchasing an additional 58,002 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,816,392 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $290,848,000 after purchasing an additional 87,414 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 17.6% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,554,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $18,373,000 after purchasing an additional 232,091 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 44.8% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 181,076 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,140,000 after purchasing an additional 55,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust during the 1st quarter worth about $1,025,000. 92.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

RLJ Lodging Trust Company Profile

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.