Swiss National Bank Lowers Stock Position in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

Swiss National Bank reduced its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ – Get Rating) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 393,058 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,600 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust were worth $4,162,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in RLJ. State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 80,687 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $854,000 after purchasing an additional 930 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 97,227 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,072,000 after purchasing an additional 1,165 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 22,259 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $236,000 after purchasing an additional 1,527 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 565,704 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,726,000 after purchasing an additional 1,913 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 741,953 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,857,000 after purchasing an additional 2,157 shares during the last quarter. 88.89% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RLJ has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $13.00 to $10.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 30th. StockNews.com started coverage on RLJ Lodging Trust in a report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, RLJ Lodging Trust currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $14.58.

RLJ Lodging Trust Price Performance

Shares of RLJ stock opened at $10.57 on Friday. RLJ Lodging Trust has a twelve month low of $9.27 and a twelve month high of $14.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.77. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.07. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.04. RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.30% and a net margin of 5.36%. The business had revenue of $302.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $304.99 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 31st were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.03%. This is a boost from RLJ Lodging Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 30th. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 123.08%.

About RLJ Lodging Trust

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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.