Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) Short Interest Down 34.2% in September

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 10,640,000 shares, a decrease of 34.2% from the September 15th total of 16,180,000 shares. Approximately 5.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,500,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.3 days.

Institutional Trading of Sunstone Hotel Investors

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Sunstone Hotel Investors during the 4th quarter valued at about $125,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Sunstone Hotel Investors in the 1st quarter worth approximately $640,000. Vert Asset Management LLC raised its position in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Vert Asset Management LLC now owns 79,899 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $890,000 after buying an additional 6,524 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co lifted its stake in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 34,553 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $385,000 after acquiring an additional 1,303 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 39.0% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 327,075 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,644,000 after acquiring an additional 91,852 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Sunstone Hotel Investors Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE SHO traded up $0.16 on Friday, hitting $10.39. The stock had a trading volume of 3,423,894 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,029,235. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a 52-week low of $9.03 and a 52-week high of $11.59. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $10.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $10.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 3.75 and a quick ratio of 3.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.24.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $247.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $248.12 million. Sunstone Hotel Investors had a net margin of 19.51% and a return on equity of 9.75%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. Sunstone Hotel Investors’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.02%.

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.