Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ)

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 2,329 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 14,456% compared to the average daily volume of 16 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 197.3% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 5,465 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 3,627 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 34.9% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,051 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 1,564 shares in the last quarter. Ground Swell Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust during the third quarter worth about $93,000. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust during the third quarter worth about $107,000. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of RLJ Lodging Trust by 31.0% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 15,798 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $145,000 after purchasing an additional 3,738 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $9.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Truist Financial dropped 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 report on Monday, October 28th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of RLJ Lodging Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.29.

RLJ Lodging Trust Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE RLJ opened at $10.60 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $9.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.49. RLJ Lodging Trust has a 12 month low of $8.74 and a 12 month high of $12.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 2.74 and a quick ratio of 2.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.55, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.72.

RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by ($0.23). RLJ Lodging Trust had a net margin of 5.19% and a return on equity of 3.58%. The company had revenue of $345.74 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $342.93 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that RLJ Lodging Trust will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current year.

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.