Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lessened its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) by 10.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 806,476 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 90,649 shares during the quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc.’s holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust were worth $8,234,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of RLJ. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 26.4% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 201,572 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,058,000 after purchasing an additional 42,143 shares during the last quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in RLJ Lodging Trust in the 4th quarter valued at $202,000. Bridgefront Capital LLC purchased a new stake in RLJ Lodging Trust in the 4th quarter valued at $287,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 58.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,398,066 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $24,486,000 after purchasing an additional 885,071 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC raised its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 201,346 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,056,000 after purchasing an additional 14,141 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on RLJ. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Truist Financial cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $10.00 in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.68.

RLJ Lodging Trust Price Performance

RLJ stock opened at $7.72 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.74, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $7.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.05. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 52 week low of $6.16 and a 52 week high of $10.84. The company has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.50.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $328.12 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $328.08 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 5.19% and a return on equity of 3.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 230.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Patricia L. Gibson purchased 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $8.03 per share, for a total transaction of $80,300.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 124,217 shares in the company, valued at approximately $997,462.51. The trade was a 8.76% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

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.