Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) Short Interest Update

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 35,570,000 shares, a drop of 9.0% from the November 30th total of 39,090,000 shares. Currently, 5.2% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 7,180,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HST has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Host Hotels & Resorts from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 15th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $20.50 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Compass Point raised Host Hotels & Resorts from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $18.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $21.39.

Host Hotels & Resorts Stock Performance

Shares of HST traded down $0.26 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $17.52. The stock had a trading volume of 5,422,161 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,839,865. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $18.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.70. Host Hotels & Resorts has a fifty-two week low of $15.71 and a fifty-two week high of $21.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.01 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 2.90 and a current ratio of 2.90.

Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.29 billion. Host Hotels & Resorts had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 10.72%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.41 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Host Hotels & Resorts will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

Host Hotels & Resorts Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.57%. Host Hotels & Resorts's dividend payout ratio is presently 77.67%.

Institutional Trading of Host Hotels & Resorts

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HST. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 537.4% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,893,087 shares of the company's stock valued at $121,318,000 after buying an additional 5,811,722 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 66.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 13,637,328 shares of the company's stock valued at $240,017,000 after purchasing an additional 5,466,629 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 207.9% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,198,392 shares of the company's stock worth $38,692,000 after purchasing an additional 1,484,370 shares during the period. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ increased its position in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 20.2% during the 2nd quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 7,962,687 shares of the company's stock worth $143,169,000 after purchasing an additional 1,339,458 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. raised its holdings in Host Hotels & Resorts by 92.9% in the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,764,294 shares of the company's stock valued at $48,652,000 after buying an additional 1,331,407 shares during the period. 98.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.