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

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AHT) was the target 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 shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 53,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AHT. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 worth $398,000 after acquiring an additional 158,882 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC raised its position in 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 worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 64,212 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in 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 worth $146,000 after acquiring an additional 38,215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in 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 worth $468,000 after acquiring an additional 22,400 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.04% of the company’s stock.

Ashford Hospitality Trust Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE AHT traded up $0.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $8.82. 14,064 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 47,528. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.55. Ashford Hospitality Trust has a 1-year low of $5.20 and a 1-year high of $20.78. The firm has a market cap of $48.67 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.68 and a beta of 2.39.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Ashford Hospitality Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Ashford Hospitality Trust Company Profile

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.