RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $9.0833.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Research upgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Raymond James Financial upgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $9.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Baird R W cut RLJ Lodging Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Truist Financial upped their price objective on RLJ Lodging Trust from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd.

RLJ Lodging Trust Price Performance

RLJ stock opened at $7.44 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.40 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 2.48 and a quick ratio of 2.48. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.35. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 1 year low of $6.16 and a 1 year high of $10.84.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $330.05 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $326.13 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.03% and a net margin of 4.23%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. RLJ Lodging Trust has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Research analysts anticipate that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.1%. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 1,200.00%.

Institutional Trading of RLJ Lodging Trust

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of RLJ. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 2,721.1% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,470 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 3,347 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust in the 3rd quarter worth about $36,000. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 55.2% during the 2nd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 5,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,870 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 23.6% during the third quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 9,120 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 1,741 shares during the period. Finally, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in RLJ Lodging Trust in the second quarter worth about $76,000. Institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

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.