7,333 Shares in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Acquired by Lazard Asset Management LLC

Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 7,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $74,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 30,500 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $308,000 after acquiring an additional 4,545 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $129,000. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 451.6% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC now owns 157,102 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,733,000 after acquiring an additional 128,620 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 19,047 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $210,000 after acquiring an additional 2,477 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 45.6% during the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 37,830 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $383,000 after acquiring an additional 11,856 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.89% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 7th. Compass Point dropped their price objective on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust to $18.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 15th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.79.

RLJ Lodging Trust Price Performance

RLJ stock opened at $11.47 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $11.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.52. The company has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 114.70 and a beta of 1.78. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 52-week low of $9.84 and a 52-week high of $14.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 3.29 and a current ratio of 3.29.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $302.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $304.99 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 3.51% and a return on equity of 2.04%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.14 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 30th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.79%. This is an increase from RLJ Lodging Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 320.00%.

RLJ Lodging Trust Company Profile

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RLJ Lodging Trust is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the ownership and acquisition of hotels. It operates through the following hotel brands: Embassy Suites, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Hilton Garden Inn, Wyndham, Renaissance, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Holiday Inn Express, Sleep Inn, Hampton Inn, Hotel Indigo, IHG, SpringHill Suites, Hyatt Centric, and Homewood Suites.