SG Americas Securities LLC Invests $431,000 in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 46,955 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $431,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. raised its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 131.1% in the second quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 3,311,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,878,616 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 1.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 420,428 shares in the last quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 50.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 290,000 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 17.6% during the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,554,388 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $18,373,000 after acquiring an additional 232,091 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 9.8% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,699,595 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $16,367,000 after acquiring an additional 152,395 shares in the last quarter. 92.35% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Bank of America decreased 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. Compass Point downgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $18.00 to $10.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com upgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, RLJ Lodging Trust currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.14.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Performance

Shares of RLJ stock opened at $9.22 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $9.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.86. The company has a market cap of $1.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.46, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 52 week low of $8.79 and a 52 week high of $12.39.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last released its quarterly 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). RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 4.93% and a return on equity of 3.34%. The business had revenue of $369.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $365.67 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 EPS for the current year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.51%. This is a boost from RLJ Lodging Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 230.78%.

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.