JPMorgan Chase & Co. Acquires 240,254 Shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,166,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 240,254 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 3.37% of RLJ Lodging Trust worth $47,429,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 5.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 980,894 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,446,000 after purchasing an additional 51,981 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 87.8% in the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 22,427 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $216,000 after buying an additional 10,483 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 32.4% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 130,942 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,261,000 after buying an additional 32,029 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management raised its position in RLJ Lodging Trust by 9.8% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,699,595 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,367,000 after purchasing an additional 152,395 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 345.1% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 128,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,235,000 after purchasing an additional 99,455 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RLJ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer upped their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on RLJ Lodging Trust from $10.00 to $10.50 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, RLJ Lodging Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.50.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE RLJ opened at $9.98 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a PE ratio of 34.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.74. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $9.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.56. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 1 year low of $8.74 and a 1 year high of $12.39.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $345.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $342.93 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.01%. RLJ Lodging Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 206.90%.

RLJ Lodging Trust 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.