RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Short Interest Update

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,870,000 shares, a decline of 23.7% from the March 15th total of 10,320,000 shares. Approximately 5.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,300,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of RLJ. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,015,428 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $352,218,000 after purchasing an additional 518,882 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 14.9% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,993,522 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $112,627,000 after buying an additional 1,038,447 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust by 0.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,057,976 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $49,518,000 after buying an additional 32,318 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 1.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,482,562 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $35,766,000 after buying an additional 60,687 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,366,587 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $35,686,000 after acquiring an additional 63,703 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $15.00 price objective for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $13.90.

RLJ Lodging Trust Price Performance

RLJ stock traded down $0.06 on Monday, hitting $11.47. 1,572,094 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,289,162. The stock has a market cap of $1.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.71. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 1-year low of $9.06 and a 1-year high of $12.39. The company has a current ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 3.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $11.79 and a 200-day moving average of $11.12.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.04. RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.79% and a net margin of 5.76%. The business had revenue of $319.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $313.34 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.33 earnings per share. RLJ Lodging Trust’s revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 29th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 125.00%.

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.