Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AHT) Short Interest Up 18.6% in December

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AHT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 158,000 shares, a growth of 18.6% from the December 15th total of 133,200 shares. Approximately 2.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 53,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ashford Hospitality Trust

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Ashford Hospitality Trust by 42.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 531,694 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $398,000 after purchasing an additional 158,882 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust by 4.9% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 482,200 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $468,000 after acquiring an additional 22,400 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust by 24.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 195,330 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $146,000 after acquiring an additional 38,215 shares during the period. Finally, PFG Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust by 215.4% in the third quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 94,025 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 64,212 shares during the period. 41.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

Ashford Hospitality Trust Price Performance

Shares of AHT stock traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $8.82. 14,064 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 47,528. The business’s fifty day moving average is $8.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.55. Ashford Hospitality Trust has a 12-month low of $5.20 and a 12-month high of $20.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.67 million, a P/E ratio of -0.68 and a beta of 2.39.

Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The real estate investment trust reported ($12.39) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($12.99). The company had revenue of $276.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $273.50 million. Ashford Hospitality Trust had a net margin of 2.84% and a negative return on equity of 12.89%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.08 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ashford Hospitality Trust will post -0.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ashford Hospitality Trust

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc, together with its subsidiaries (Ashford Trust), is a real estate investment trust (REIT). While our portfolio currently consists of upscale hotels and upper upscale full-service hotels, our investment strategy is predominantly focused on investing in upper upscale full-service hotels in the United States that have revenue per available room (RevPAR) generally less than twice the U.S.