RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) Shares Sold by AQR Capital Management LLC

AQR Capital Management LLC decreased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ - Free Report) by 12.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 526,910 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 76,988 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.34% of RLJ Lodging Trust worth $5,380,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC grew its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 97.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 271,749 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,495,000 after purchasing an additional 134,093 shares in the last quarter. Vert Asset Management LLC raised its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. Vert Asset Management LLC now owns 60,726 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $620,000 after buying an additional 12,714 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc boosted its holdings in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 30.6% in the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 40,417 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $416,000 after acquiring an additional 9,474 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC increased its stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 26.8% in the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 45,054 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 9,523 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 44.1% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 34,775 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 10,643 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.35% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial lowered RLJ Lodging Trust from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Friday, March 21st. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $10.50 to $9.75 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their price target on RLJ Lodging Trust from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $10.68.

RLJ Lodging Trust Stock Up 2.9 %

RLJ stock traded up $0.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $7.39. The company had a trading volume of 3,348,252 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,845,764. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $7.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 2.74 and a current ratio of 2.74. RLJ Lodging Trust has a fifty-two week low of $6.16 and a fifty-two week high of $10.84. The company has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.50.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.01. RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 5.19% and a return on equity of 3.58%. The business had revenue of $328.12 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $328.08 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RLJ Lodging Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.12%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. RLJ Lodging Trust's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 230.77%.

Insider Activity

In other RLJ Lodging Trust news, Director Patricia L. Gibson purchased 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $8.03 per share, with a total value of $80,300.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 124,217 shares in the company, valued at approximately $997,462.51. This represents a 8.76 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 2.60% of the company's stock.

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.