Raymond James Has Lowered Expectations for Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST) Stock Price

Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST) had its price objective lowered by Raymond James from $23.00 to $20.00 in a report issued on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Raymond James currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $20.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Host Hotels & Resorts presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.54.

Host Hotels & Resorts Stock Performance

Shares of HST opened at $16.77 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.47. The company has a quick ratio of 2.90, a current ratio of 2.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $11.72 billion, a PE ratio of 16.28 and a beta of 1.30. Host Hotels & Resorts has a 52-week low of $15.71 and a 52-week high of $21.31.

Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.37 billion. Host Hotels & Resorts had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 10.72%. Equities research analysts predict that Host Hotels & Resorts will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Host Hotels & Resorts Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.77%. Host Hotels & Resorts’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.67%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,243,563 shares of the company’s stock worth $912,056,000 after acquiring an additional 950,431 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 50,002,916 shares of the company’s stock worth $876,115,000 after acquiring an additional 3,932,928 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts during the 4th quarter worth about $807,878,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 37,047,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $649,076,000 after acquiring an additional 643,450 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 24.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,555,445 shares of the company’s stock worth $395,171,000 after acquiring an additional 4,460,468 shares during the period. 98.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Host Hotels & Resorts

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the management of luxury and upper-upscale hotels. It operates through the following geographical segments: United States, Brazil, and Canada. The company was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Bethesda, MD.