Axa S.A. Purchases New Stake in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

Axa S.A. acquired a new position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 25,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $264,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Rhumbline Advisers increased its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 282,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,888,000 after buying an additional 1,320 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 78.2% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,230 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 1,417 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 17,594 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $180,000 after acquiring an additional 1,796 shares during the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC raised its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 23.8% during the 4th quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 13,659 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $139,000 after acquiring an additional 2,624 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,315,588 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $13,432,000 after purchasing an additional 4,258 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Performance

RLJ stock opened at $7.39 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.07. The company has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.48, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. RLJ Lodging Trust has a fifty-two week low of $6.16 and a fifty-two week high of $10.84.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.01. RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 5.19% and a return on equity of 3.58%. The company had revenue of $328.12 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $328.08 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.12%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 222.22%.

Insider Activity

In other RLJ Lodging Trust news, Director Patricia L. Gibson purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $8.03 per share, for a total transaction of $80,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 124,217 shares in the company, valued at $997,462.51. The trade was a 8.76 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on RLJ. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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 report on Tuesday, February 18th. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have assigned 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 $10.68.

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.