Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AHT) Short Interest Up 14.5% in November

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AHT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 137,900 shares, a growth of 14.5% from the October 31st total of 120,400 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 43,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Ashford Hospitality Trust

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PFG Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust by 76.1% in the 2nd quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 29,813 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 12,888 shares in the last quarter. Founders Financial Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust in the second quarter worth $29,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust by 97.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 58,500 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 28,800 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust by 24.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 195,330 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $146,000 after purchasing an additional 38,215 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ashford Hospitality Trust by 42.6% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. 41.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Ashford Hospitality Trust Price Performance

Shares of AHT traded up $0.69 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $9.05. The stock had a trading volume of 68,534 shares, compared to its average volume of 47,746. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.26. The firm has a market cap of $49.96 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.69 and a beta of 2.38. Ashford Hospitality Trust has a twelve month low of $5.20 and a twelve month high of $24.75.

Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE:AHT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates 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 firm earned $0.08 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Ashford Hospitality Trust will post -2.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.