Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.09

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.09 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Sunstone Hotel Investors has a payout ratio of 120.0% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Sunstone Hotel Investors to earn $0.97 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.1%.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE SHO traded down $0.08 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $10.58. The stock had a trading volume of 2,030,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,030,805. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a 52 week low of $9.39 and a 52 week high of $12.41. The company has a market cap of $2.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.91, a PEG ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The business’s 50 day moving average is $11.63 and its 200-day moving average is $10.88.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $214.77 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.17 million. Sunstone Hotel Investors had a return on equity of 9.04% and a net margin of 18.61%. As a group, analysts predict that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.79 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on SHO. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Sunstone Hotel Investors from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $10.00 price objective on shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.71.

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.