LGT Capital Partners LTD. Trims Stock Holdings in Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST)

LGT Capital Partners LTD. lessened its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) by 64.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 162,670 shares of the company’s stock after selling 294,060 shares during the quarter. LGT Capital Partners LTD.’s holdings in Host Hotels & Resorts were worth $3,167,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of HST. State of Wisconsin Investment Board grew its stake in Host Hotels & Resorts by 65.6% in the 2nd quarter. State of Wisconsin Investment Board now owns 855,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,406,000 after buying an additional 339,113 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 18.7% during the 3rd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 20,172 shares of the company’s stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 3,182 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp lifted its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 97,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,561,000 after acquiring an additional 3,601 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 3.0% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,460,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,478,000 after purchasing an additional 42,446 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in Host Hotels & Resorts by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,484,266 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,468,000 after buying an additional 73,860 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.52% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on HST shares. Barclays boosted their target price on Host Hotels & Resorts from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Bank of America raised shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $23.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Host Hotels & Resorts from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Host Hotels & Resorts has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO James F. Risoleo sold 28,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.04, for a total transaction of $591,981.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,225,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,826,140.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Host Hotels & Resorts Price Performance

Shares of Host Hotels & Resorts stock opened at $20.68 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.29, a current ratio of 3.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. has a 52 week low of $14.92 and a 52 week high of $21.31. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.37. The company has a market capitalization of $14.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.88, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.31.

Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.25). The business had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. Host Hotels & Resorts had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 13.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.44 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Host Hotels & Resorts Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This is a positive change from Host Hotels & Resorts’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.87%. Host Hotels & Resorts’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 76.92%.

Host Hotels & Resorts Company Profile

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.