Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Grows Position in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) by 84.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 49,286 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 22,515 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust were worth $503,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust during the third quarter valued at approximately $406,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,592,272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $32,977,000 after purchasing an additional 170,484 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 55,310 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $508,000 after buying an additional 6,039 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 294.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 841,753 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,727,000 after buying an additional 628,157 shares during the period. Finally, Atom Investors LP boosted its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 106.0% in the 3rd quarter. Atom Investors LP now owns 147,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,358,000 after buying an additional 76,112 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RLJ has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Truist Financial cut RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $10.50 to $9.75 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.82.

RLJ Lodging Trust Price Performance

RLJ stock opened at $8.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.74. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $9.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.57. RLJ Lodging Trust has a one year low of $8.15 and a one year high of $11.99. The company has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a PE ratio of 28.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.69.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.36. The business had revenue of $329.99 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $324.66 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 5.19% and a return on equity of 3.58%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 222.22%.

RLJ Lodging Trust Company Profile

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.