Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Host Hotels & Resorts Call Options (NASDAQ:HST)

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 3,019 call options on the company. This is an increase of 362% compared to the average daily volume of 653 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on HST shares. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Compass Point lowered shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $25.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.50.

Host Hotels & Resorts Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of HST traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $17.39. 890,480 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,550,196. Host Hotels & Resorts has a 1-year low of $14.92 and a 1-year high of $21.31. The company has a quick ratio of 4.55, a current ratio of 4.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company has a market capitalization of $12.22 billion, a PE ratio of 17.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.33. The business has a 50 day moving average of $17.31 and a 200 day moving average of $18.63.

Host Hotels & Resorts Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.60%. Host Hotels & Resorts’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 78.43%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Host Hotels & Resorts

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Host Hotels & Resorts by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 147,203 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,647,000 after buying an additional 13,856 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel increased its holdings in Host Hotels & Resorts by 11.4% in the 2nd quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 96,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,732,000 after buying an additional 9,847 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in Host Hotels & Resorts by 7.9% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 98,922 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,779,000 after buying an additional 7,273 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Host Hotels & Resorts in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $340,000. Finally, Creative Planning increased its holdings in Host Hotels & Resorts by 16.6% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 45,592 shares of the company’s stock worth $820,000 after buying an additional 6,505 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.52% of the company’s stock.

Host Hotels & Resorts Company Profile

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc is an S&P 500 company and is the largest lodging real estate investment trust and one of the largest owners of luxury and upper-upscale hotels. The Company currently owns 72 properties in the United States and five properties internationally totaling approximately 42,000 rooms.