Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Makes New $1.14 Million Investment in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 118,800 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $1,144,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund owned approximately 0.08% of RLJ Lodging Trust at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 3,627 shares in the last quarter. Hazelview Securities Inc. bought a new position in RLJ Lodging Trust during the 1st quarter worth approximately $82,000. BOKF NA bought a new stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust in the 1st quarter valued at $139,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 11.5% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 11,944 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $141,000 after buying an additional 1,229 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 32.3% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 12,491 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 3,052 shares during the last quarter. 92.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on RLJ shares. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $9.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Robert W. Baird cut 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. Compass Point lowered shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $10.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $12.14.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE RLJ traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $9.21. The company's stock had a trading volume of 929,467 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,372,394. The company has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion, a PE ratio of 33.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 52 week low of $8.79 and a 52 week high of $12.39. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $9.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.98.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $369.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $365.67 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from RLJ Lodging Trust's previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. RLJ Lodging Trust's payout ratio is 214.29%.

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.