Choreo LLC Takes $340,000 Position in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

Choreo LLC purchased a new position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 36,186 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $340,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of RLJ. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 11.5% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 11,944 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $141,000 after buying an additional 1,229 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 7.4% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 27,568 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $326,000 after purchasing an additional 1,903 shares during the last quarter. Vert Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Vert Asset Management LLC now owns 64,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $764,000 after buying an additional 2,015 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 2.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 107,116 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,267,000 after buying an additional 2,071 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 32.3% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 12,491 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 3,052 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on RLJ shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America reduced their price target on RLJ Lodging Trust from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Compass Point lowered RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $10.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.25.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Up 4.3 %

NYSE RLJ opened at $9.43 on Wednesday. RLJ Lodging Trust has a fifty-two week low of $8.79 and a fifty-two week high of $12.39. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $9.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $10.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.47 billion, a PE ratio of 33.66, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.70.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($0.25). The business had revenue of $369.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $365.67 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 4.93% and a return on equity of 3.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This is a positive change from RLJ Lodging Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.37%. RLJ Lodging Trust’s payout ratio is 214.29%.

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.