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

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 13th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid 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. Research 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 1.2 %

Shares of RLJ stock opened at $10.36 on Friday. 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 1 year low of $8.74 and a 1 year high of $12.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.72. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.51.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last issued its earnings results 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). RLJ Lodging Trust had a return on equity of 3.58% and a net margin of 5.19%. The company had revenue of $345.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $342.93 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.40 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com upgraded RLJ Lodging Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $10.00 to $10.50 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, RLJ Lodging Trust presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.50.

RLJ Lodging Trust Company Profile

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.