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

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (NYSE:SHO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 7th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of 0.09 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, October 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, September 30th.

Sunstone Hotel Investors has increased its dividend by an average of 68.7% annually over the last three years. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a payout ratio of 128.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Sunstone Hotel Investors to earn $0.98 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 36.7%.

Sunstone Hotel Investors Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SHO opened at $10.60 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.57 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $10.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.36. The company has a current ratio of 3.75, a quick ratio of 3.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Sunstone Hotel Investors has a 1-year low of $9.03 and a 1-year high of $11.59.

Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE:SHO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.16). Sunstone Hotel Investors had a return on equity of 9.75% and a net margin of 19.51%. The firm had revenue of $247.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $248.12 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sunstone Hotel Investors will post 0.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $10.50 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Sunstone Hotel Investors from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.42.

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.