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

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $12.20.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Sunstone Hotel Investors from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th.

Institutional Trading of Sunstone Hotel Investors

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 2.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,247,927 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,169,000 after purchasing an additional 109,327 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 304.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 343,018 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,540,000 after purchasing an additional 258,302 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its stake in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 610,149 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,297,000 after buying an additional 46,402 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its holdings in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 90.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 359,767 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,713,000 after buying an additional 170,821 shares during the period. Finally, NFJ Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in Sunstone Hotel Investors in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,220,000. 99.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SHO opened at $12.21 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The stock has a market cap of $2.45 billion, a PE ratio of 16.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.45 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.38. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a 1-year low of $9.39 and a 1-year high of $12.35.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.02). Sunstone Hotel Investors had a net margin of 18.61% and a return on equity of 9.04%. The firm had revenue of $226.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $224.61 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Sunstone Hotel Investors’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.11%.

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.