Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Acquires 22,515 Shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) by 84.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,286 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 22,515 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust were worth $503,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 294.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 841,753 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,727,000 after acquiring an additional 628,157 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans purchased a new position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,374,000. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,397,290 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $68,999,000 after purchasing an additional 340,271 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 240,254 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,331,818 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $34,018,000 after buying an additional 232,393 shares during the period. 92.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on RLJ. Truist Financial lowered shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $10.00 in a research note on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $10.50 to $9.75 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.82.

RLJ Lodging Trust Price Performance

Shares of RLJ stock opened at $8.21 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.69. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.57. RLJ Lodging Trust has a one year low of $8.15 and a one year high of $11.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick ratio of 2.74.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.36. The company had revenue of $329.99 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $324.66 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.58% and a net margin of 5.19%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.37 EPS for the current year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.31%. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 222.22%.

RLJ Lodging Trust 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.