Short Interest in Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) Decreases By 7.6%

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 37,800,000 shares, a decrease of 7.6% from the October 15th total of 40,920,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,600,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.0 days. Currently, 5.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Host Hotels & Resorts

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invst LLC boosted its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invst LLC now owns 37,581 shares of the company’s stock valued at $661,000 after buying an additional 2,376 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 353,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,223,000 after buying an additional 3,827 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 180,904 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 96,597 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,700,000 after buying an additional 3,872 shares during the period. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 92.9% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,764,294 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,652,000 after buying an additional 1,331,407 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.52% of the company’s stock.

Host Hotels & Resorts Price Performance

Shares of Host Hotels & Resorts stock opened at $17.33 on Wednesday. Host Hotels & Resorts has a 52-week low of $15.71 and a 52-week high of $21.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a fifty day moving average of $17.74 and a 200-day moving average of $17.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 2.90 and a current ratio of 2.90.

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

Host Hotels & Resorts Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.62%. Host Hotels & Resorts’s payout ratio is currently 77.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on HST. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $23.00 to $21.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 13th. Compass Point raised shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $18.00 to $22.00 in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Host Hotels & Resorts has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.21.

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.