Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) Short Interest Update

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 39,090,000 shares, a decline of 7.5% from the November 15th total of 42,240,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 7,370,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.3 days. Currently, 5.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Host Hotels & Resorts

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,243,563 shares of the company’s stock worth $912,056,000 after buying an additional 950,431 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,902,882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $331,698,000 after acquiring an additional 180,904 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 66.9% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 13,637,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $240,017,000 after acquiring an additional 5,466,629 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,300,937 shares of the company’s stock valued at $181,296,000 after acquiring an additional 181,103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 9,189,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $165,218,000 after purchasing an additional 965,100 shares in the last quarter. 98.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on HST. StockNews.com cut shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Compass Point raised shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.39.

Host Hotels & Resorts Stock Performance

HST traded up $0.08 during trading on Monday, hitting $18.66. The stock had a trading volume of 8,022,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,821,755. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 2.90 and a current ratio of 2.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.04 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $17.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.69. Host Hotels & Resorts has a twelve month low of $15.71 and a twelve month high of $21.31.

Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.24). Host Hotels & Resorts had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 12.92%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Host Hotels & Resorts will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Host Hotels & Resorts Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. 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.