Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $11.42.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on SHO shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $10.50 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, September 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th.

Institutional Trading of Sunstone Hotel Investors

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,326,254 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $360,114,000 after purchasing an additional 115,899 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 1.9% during the second quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 2,818,270 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $29,479,000 after purchasing an additional 51,203 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 1.0% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,651,189 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,731,000 after purchasing an additional 25,086 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 368.0% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,767,636 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $18,489,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389,917 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 318.0% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,367,061 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,299,000 after purchasing an additional 1,039,986 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.37% of the company’s stock.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Price Performance

NYSE SHO opened at $10.26 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.25. The company has a current ratio of 3.75, a quick ratio of 3.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a 12-month low of $9.03 and a 12-month high of $11.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.40, a P/E/G ratio of 5.94 and a beta of 1.24.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.16). The firm had revenue of $247.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $248.12 million. Sunstone Hotel Investors had a return on equity of 9.75% and a net margin of 19.51%. Sunstone Hotel Investors’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.51%. Sunstone Hotel Investors’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.56%.

About Sunstone Hotel Investors

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.