Short Interest in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Increases By 27.7%

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,630,000 shares, a growth of 27.7% from the September 30th total of 10,670,000 shares. Currently, 9.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,520,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 9.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On RLJ Lodging Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RLJ. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 0.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 87,414 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust by 11.5% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 11,944 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $141,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 36.0% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 100,553 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,189,000 after buying an additional 26,604 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 145.6% in the 1st quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 78,058 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $923,000 after buying an additional 46,272 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,547,200 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $18,288,000 after buying an additional 83,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on RLJ shares. Wolfe Research lowered RLJ Lodging Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Bank of America cut their price target on RLJ Lodging Trust from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.71.

RLJ Lodging Trust Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:RLJ traded up $0.03 on Wednesday, hitting $9.09. 1,772,437 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,376,957. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 52 week low of $8.79 and a 52 week high of $12.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.69. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $9.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.69.

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

RLJ Lodging Trust Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.60%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This is an increase from RLJ Lodging Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 230.78%.

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.