Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST)

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 2,608 put options on the company. This is an increase of 497% compared to the average daily volume of 437 put options.

Insider Activity at Host Hotels & Resorts

In related news, CEO James F. Risoleo sold 28,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.04, for a total value of $591,981.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,225,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $46,826,140.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Host Hotels & Resorts

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HST. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $615,558,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 15.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 50,275,252 shares of the company’s stock valued at $807,923,000 after acquiring an additional 6,719,578 shares in the last quarter. PGGM Investments bought a new position in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $57,664,000. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY bought a new position in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,873,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,456,000. Institutional investors own 98.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on HST shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Barclays increased their price target on Host Hotels & Resorts from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Host Hotels & Resorts from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.33.

Host Hotels & Resorts Trading Up 0.9 %

HST stock traded up $0.17 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $19.17. The company had a trading volume of 1,175,738 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,915,618. The company has a current ratio of 3.29, a quick ratio of 3.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Host Hotels & Resorts has a 52 week low of $14.92 and a 52 week high of $21.31. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $20.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.86. The stock has a market cap of $13.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.38, a PEG ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.31.

Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). Host Hotels & Resorts had a net margin of 13.93% and a return on equity of 10.82%. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.44 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Host Hotels & Resorts will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Host Hotels & Resorts Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This is an increase from Host Hotels & Resorts’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Host Hotels & Resorts’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.92%.

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.