RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Rating Lowered to Peer Perform at Wolfe Research

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) was downgraded by analysts at Wolfe Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports.

RLJ has been the topic of a number of other reports. StockNews.com lowered RLJ Lodging Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Compass Point downgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $18.00 to $10.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America reduced their price target on RLJ Lodging Trust from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on RLJ Lodging Trust from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.25.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Down 0.9 %

RLJ stock opened at $9.42 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.46 billion, a PE ratio of 33.64, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.70. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 1-year low of $8.79 and a 1-year high of $12.39. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.12.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.25). The business had revenue of $369.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $365.67 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.34% and a net margin of 4.93%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On RLJ Lodging Trust

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of RLJ. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. increased its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust by 131.1% in the 2nd quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 3,311,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,878,616 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust in the fourth quarter valued at about $11,996,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 1.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,236,820 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $298,299,000 after buying an additional 420,428 shares during the period. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 50.9% in the second quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC now owns 860,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,282,000 after buying an additional 290,000 shares during the period. Finally, Armistice Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,930,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

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.