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

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,510,000 shares, a drop of 18.2% from the December 31st total of 12,850,000 shares. Approximately 7.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,690,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.2 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RLJ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on RLJ Lodging Trust from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.92.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of RLJ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,592,272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $32,977,000 after acquiring an additional 170,484 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 97.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 271,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,495,000 after purchasing an additional 134,093 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,166,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $47,429,000 after acquiring an additional 240,254 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC grew its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 22.3% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 44,682 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $410,000 after buying an additional 8,136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning purchased a new position in RLJ Lodging Trust during the third quarter worth about $275,000. 92.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

RLJ Lodging Trust Trading Up 0.0 %

NYSE:RLJ traded up $0.00 on Thursday, reaching $9.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 559,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,607,149. The firm has a market cap of $1.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.16 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 12-month low of $8.74 and a 12-month high of $12.39. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $10.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.60.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by ($0.23). The company had revenue of $345.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $342.93 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.58% and a net margin of 5.19%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued 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 yield of 6.08%. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 206.90%.

About RLJ Lodging Trust

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.