Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:WH) Short Interest Update

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:WH) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,480,000 shares, a decline of 21.8% from the February 13th total of 3,170,000 shares. Currently, 3.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 853,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WH has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $116.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $114.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $99.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $116.45.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts by 17.3% in the fourth quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 173,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,533,000 after buying an additional 25,702 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in the fourth quarter worth $248,000. Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts by 91.9% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 30,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,396,000 after purchasing an additional 14,688 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts by 40.8% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,747,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,533,000 after purchasing an additional 506,593 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.46% of the company’s stock.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Price Performance

NYSE:WH traded down $2.73 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $89.42. 925,242 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 788,525. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.72. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has a 1 year low of $67.67 and a 1 year high of $113.07. The company has a market cap of $6.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $103.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $94.74.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:WH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.04. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts had a net margin of 20.51% and a return on equity of 54.86%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Wyndham Hotels & Resorts will post 4.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $0.41 dividend. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This is an increase from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’s payout ratio is 45.18%.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Company Profile

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc engages in the franchise and operation of hotels under the Wyndham brand. It operates through the Hotel Franchising and Hotel Management segments. The Hotel Franchising segment focuses on licensing the company’s lodging brands and providing related services to third-party hotel owners and others.