State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Lowers Stock Holdings in Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) by 2.0% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 374,831 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,538 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Host Hotels & Resorts were worth $6,597,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 0.7% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 188,948 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,325,000 after purchasing an additional 1,348 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 4.9% in the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 16,803 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 784 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments lifted its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 12.0% in the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 11,211 shares of the company’s stock valued at $197,000 after purchasing an additional 1,199 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 11.6% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 135,457 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,354,000 after purchasing an additional 14,088 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Host Hotels & Resorts in the third quarter valued at about $108,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $20.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.29.

Host Hotels & Resorts Stock Up 0.3 %

HST stock opened at $18.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.53, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 4.55 and a current ratio of 2.90. Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. has a one year low of $15.71 and a one year high of $21.31. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $17.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.73.

Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.24). Host Hotels & Resorts had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 10.72%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.41 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Host Hotels & Resorts Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.43%. Host Hotels & Resorts’s dividend payout ratio is presently 77.67%.

About Host Hotels & Resorts

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc is an S&P 500 company and is the largest lodging real estate investment trust and one of the largest owners of luxury and upper-upscale hotels. The Company currently owns 72 properties in the United States and five properties internationally totaling approximately 42,000 rooms.