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

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of 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. Approximately 7.1% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,560,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.8 days.

RLJ Lodging Trust Price Performance

NYSE:RLJ traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $9.15. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,712,553 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,376,498. RLJ Lodging Trust has a twelve month low of $8.79 and a twelve month high of $12.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.91. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.68, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.69.

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

RLJ Lodging Trust Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This is a boost from RLJ Lodging Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.56%. RLJ Lodging Trust’s payout ratio is currently 214.29%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On RLJ Lodging Trust

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 valued at $290,848,000 after purchasing an additional 87,414 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust during the 4th quarter worth approximately $251,000. Pensionfund DSM Netherlands increased its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 13.1% in the 1st quarter. Pensionfund DSM Netherlands now owns 86,200 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,019,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 21.4% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 17,381 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $205,000 after acquiring an additional 3,061 shares during the period. Finally, Pensionfund Sabic boosted its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 28.8% during the first quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 37,100 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $439,000 after acquiring an additional 8,300 shares in the last quarter. 92.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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