Analysts Set Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) Target Price at $12.17

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $12.17.

Several research firms have commented on SHO. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sunstone Hotel Investors

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Diversified Trust Co raised its stake in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 40,697 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $482,000 after purchasing an additional 4,897 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 114.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,271 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,743 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 31.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,775,533 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $49,284,000 after purchasing an additional 1,130,558 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 11.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,120,710 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,566,000 after buying an additional 116,058 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 2.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,247,927 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,169,000 after buying an additional 109,327 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.37% of the company’s stock.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Stock Down 2.8 %

SHO stock opened at $11.76 on Friday. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a 12-month low of $9.39 and a 12-month high of $12.41. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The company has a market cap of $2.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.47, a PEG ratio of 6.45 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50 day moving average of $11.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.64.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.02). Sunstone Hotel Investors had a net margin of 18.61% and a return on equity of 9.04%. The firm had revenue of $226.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $224.61 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.23 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.06%. Sunstone Hotel Investors’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.74%.

About Sunstone Hotel Investors

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 14 hotels comprised of 6,675 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership, and disposition of well-located hotel and resort real estate.