Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.09 (NYSE:SHO)

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 7th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of 0.09 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th.

Sunstone Hotel Investors has increased its dividend by an average of 68.7% per year over the last three years. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a payout ratio of 128.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Sunstone Hotel Investors to earn $0.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.7%.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Stock Performance

NYSE SHO opened at $10.60 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $10.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.36. The stock has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a PE ratio of 11.78, a PEG ratio of 4.57 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 3.75 and a current ratio of 3.75. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a fifty-two week low of $9.03 and a fifty-two week high of $11.59.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.16). The firm had revenue of $247.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $248.12 million. Sunstone Hotel Investors had a return on equity of 9.75% and a net margin of 19.51%. The company’s revenue was down 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SHO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $10.50 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, September 13th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.42.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Company Profile

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 14 hotels comprised of 6,675 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership, and disposition of well-located hotel and resort real estate.