RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Rating Lowered to Underweight at Wells Fargo & Company

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note issued on Friday, Briefing.com reports. They currently have a $9.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, down from their prior target price of $11.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target would indicate a potential downside of 0.11% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Compass Point downgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $12.00 to $10.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, RLJ Lodging Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.25.

RLJ Lodging Trust Price Performance

RLJ Lodging Trust stock opened at $9.01 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $9.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.30. The firm has a market cap of $1.40 billion, a PE ratio of 32.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. RLJ Lodging Trust has a one year low of $8.79 and a one year high of $12.39.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($0.25). RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.34% and a net margin of 4.93%. The firm had revenue of $369.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $365.67 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 1.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,236,820 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $298,299,000 after acquiring an additional 420,428 shares in the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. increased its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 131.1% during the 2nd quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 3,311,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,878,616 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management increased its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,699,595 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $16,367,000 after purchasing an additional 152,395 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 2.4% in the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,591,525 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,326,000 after buying an additional 37,137 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 2.1% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,343,923 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,885,000 after buying an additional 27,746 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

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.