Strs Ohio Trims Stock Position in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

Strs Ohio lowered its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) by 7.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 31,600 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,400 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust were worth $370,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 178,304 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,090,000 after buying an additional 8,145 shares in the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in RLJ Lodging Trust in the 4th quarter worth approximately $262,000. Vert Asset Management LLC grew its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Vert Asset Management LLC now owns 62,650 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $734,000 after buying an additional 1,787 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 126,244 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,480,000 after buying an additional 4,414 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ziegler Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in RLJ Lodging Trust in the 4th quarter worth approximately $984,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $15.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.90.

RLJ Lodging Trust Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of RLJ opened at $11.11 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $11.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.20. RLJ Lodging Trust has a fifty-two week low of $9.06 and a fifty-two week high of $12.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 3.46 and a current ratio of 3.46. The firm has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.72, a PEG ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.71.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 26th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $319.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $313.34 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 5.76% and a return on equity of 3.79%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.55 earnings per share for the current year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.