Sunstone Hotel Investors' (SHO) Underweight Rating Reiterated at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley reissued their underweight rating on shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO - Free Report) in a research note published on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $10.00 target price on the real estate investment trust's stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on SHO. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Sunstone Hotel Investors from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $11.86.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Stock Performance

NYSE:SHO traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $11.60. The company had a trading volume of 3,129,270 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,676,396. The firm has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.26, a PEG ratio of 6.45 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $11.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.65. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a 52 week low of $9.39 and a 52 week high of $12.41.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.02). Sunstone Hotel Investors had a return on equity of 9.04% and a net margin of 18.61%. The firm had revenue of $226.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $224.61 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.23 EPS. The business's revenue was down 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.79 EPS for the current year.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.10%. Sunstone Hotel Investors's payout ratio is presently 44.74%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sunstone Hotel Investors

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Heritage Family Offices LLP boosted its position in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Heritage Family Offices LLP now owns 14,409 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $171,000 after acquiring an additional 969 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 40,697 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $482,000 after purchasing an additional 4,897 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 114.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,271 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,743 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 31.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,775,533 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $49,284,000 after purchasing an additional 1,130,558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 11.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,120,710 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $11,566,000 after purchasing an additional 116,058 shares during the last quarter. 99.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Company Profile

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 14 hotels comprised of 6,675 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership, and disposition of well-located hotel and resort real estate.