Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 4,342 Shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) by 29.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,603 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 4,342 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in RLJ Lodging Trust were worth $97,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of RLJ. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 34.9% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,051 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 1,564 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 0.8% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 225,738 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,072,000 after buying an additional 1,755 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 2.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 107,116 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,267,000 after purchasing an additional 2,071 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 32.3% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 12,491 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 3,052 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP raised its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 197.3% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 5,465 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 3,627 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on RLJ shares. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Compass Point downgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $18.00 to $10.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut RLJ Lodging Trust from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, RLJ Lodging Trust has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.29.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Performance

Shares of RLJ opened at $10.06 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $9.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.49. The stock has a market cap of $1.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.69, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.70. RLJ Lodging Trust has a one year low of $8.74 and a one year high of $12.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick ratio of 2.74.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.32 by ($0.23). RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.58% and a net margin of 5.19%. The business had revenue of $345.74 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $342.93 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current year.

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.