RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.15

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 13th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.79%.

RLJ Lodging Trust has a dividend payout ratio of 315.8% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect RLJ Lodging Trust to earn $1.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.3%.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Performance

NYSE:RLJ traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $10.36. 1,740,415 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,432,167. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.72. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $9.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.51. The company has a current ratio of 2.74, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 12 month low of $8.74 and a 12 month high of $12.39.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $345.74 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $342.93 million. RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.58% and a net margin of 5.19%. The company's revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RLJ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $10.00 to $10.50 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Wolfe Research lowered RLJ Lodging Trust from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $11.50.

About RLJ Lodging Trust

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.