Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lessened its stake in Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 808,772 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 10,772 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned 0.40% of Sunstone Hotel Investors worth $9,010,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SHO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,326,254 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $360,114,000 after acquiring an additional 115,899 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,860,281 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $84,341,000 after purchasing an additional 89,211 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,906,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $41,913,000 after purchasing an additional 88,949 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors by 313.8% during the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,873,721 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $41,565,000 after purchasing an additional 2,937,603 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Sunstone Hotel Investors by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,281,393 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $35,209,000 after acquiring an additional 236,708 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SHO. Wolfe Research raised Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Baird R W raised Sunstone Hotel Investors to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Compass Point raised Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Robert W. Baird raised Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $11.00 to $12.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sunstone Hotel Investors has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.75.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Price Performance

Shares of SHO traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $10.52. 1,370,247 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,810,213. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 8.17 and a current ratio of 8.17. Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. has a 12-month low of $8.61 and a 12-month high of $11.59. The company has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $10.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.59.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.16 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $217.17 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $212.00 million. Sunstone Hotel Investors had a net margin of 20.69% and a return on equity of 10.75%. Research analysts expect that Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were issued a $0.09 dividend. This is a boost from Sunstone Hotel Investors’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. Sunstone Hotel Investors’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.33%.

About Sunstone Hotel Investors

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc is a lodging real estate investment trust ("REIT") that as of the date of this release owns 14 hotels comprised of 6,675 rooms, the majority of which are operated under nationally recognized brands. Sunstone's strategy is to create long-term stakeholder value through the acquisition, active ownership, and disposition of well-located hotel and resort real estate.