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

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, June 13th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.51%.

RLJ Lodging Trust has a dividend payout ratio of 600.0% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. 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 Trading Down 3.0%

NYSE RLJ traded down $0.22 on Friday, reaching $7.05. The company had a trading volume of 1,889,549 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,896,830. The firm has a market cap of $1.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $7.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $8.71.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RLJ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp dropped their price target on RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note 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 for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $10.00 to $7.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Wall Street Zen cut shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their target price on RLJ Lodging Trust from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, RLJ Lodging Trust currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $9.96.

Insider Activity

In other RLJ Lodging Trust news, Director Patricia L. Gibson acquired 10,000 shares of RLJ Lodging Trust stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $8.03 per share, for a total transaction of $80,300.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 124,217 shares of the company's stock, valued at $997,462.51. This trade represents a 8.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust stock. Amundi increased its stake in RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ - Free Report) by 12.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 90,874 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 9,983 shares during the quarter. Amundi owned approximately 0.06% of RLJ Lodging Trust worth $717,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. 92.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.