Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) Short Interest Down 17.7% in December

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,380,000 shares, a decrease of 17.7% from the December 15th total of 12,610,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,720,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.8 days. Currently, 5.2% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 2.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,247,927 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,169,000 after purchasing an additional 109,327 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 31.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,775,533 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $49,284,000 after purchasing an additional 1,130,558 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 3.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,081,978 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $42,126,000 after purchasing an additional 117,390 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 1.9% in the second quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 2,818,270 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $29,479,000 after purchasing an additional 51,203 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 1.0% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,651,189 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $27,731,000 after purchasing an additional 25,086 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on SHO. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Sunstone Hotel Investors from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Sunstone Hotel Investors from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and set a $10.00 price target on shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors in a research note on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Sunstone Hotel Investors has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.86.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SHO opened at $11.73 on Friday. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a 1-year low of $9.39 and a 1-year high of $12.41. The business has a 50-day moving average of $11.48 and a 200-day moving average of $10.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. The company has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.43, a PEG ratio of 5.14 and a beta of 1.21.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.02). Sunstone Hotel Investors had a return on equity of 9.04% and a net margin of 18.61%. The company had revenue of $226.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $224.61 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.23 EPS. Sunstone Hotel Investors’s quarterly revenue was down 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Sunstone Hotel Investors’s payout ratio is 44.74%.

About Sunstone Hotel Investors

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 14 hotels comprised of 6,675 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership, and disposition of well-located hotel and resort real estate.