RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Short Interest Down 18.2% in December

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) saw a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,510,000 shares, a decline of 18.2% from the December 15th total of 12,850,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,690,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.2 days. Currently, 7.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Performance

NYSE:RLJ opened at $10.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.49 and a beta of 1.70. The company’s 50-day moving average is $10.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.57. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 1-year low of $8.74 and a 1-year high of $12.39.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.32 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $345.74 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $342.93 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 5.19% and a return on equity of 3.58%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.37 EPS for the current year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.00%. RLJ Lodging Trust’s payout ratio is currently 206.90%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On RLJ Lodging Trust

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 197.3% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 5,465 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 3,627 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 34.9% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,051 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 1,564 shares during the period. Ground Swell Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $93,000. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $107,000. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 31.0% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 15,798 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $145,000 after purchasing an additional 3,738 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on RLJ shares. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th. 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. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $10.00 to $10.50 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.92.

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.