Nomura Holdings Inc. Acquires New Position in Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST)

Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NASDAQ:HST) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 104,187 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,825,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 50,002,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $876,115,000 after buying an additional 3,932,928 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $807,878,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 37,047,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $649,076,000 after buying an additional 643,450 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Host Hotels & Resorts by 24.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,555,445 shares of the company’s stock valued at $395,171,000 after buying an additional 4,460,468 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Host Hotels & Resorts by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,253,516 shares of the company’s stock worth $336,539,000 after purchasing an additional 350,634 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.52% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on HST. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Compass Point downgraded shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Raymond James cut their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $23.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Host Hotels & Resorts from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.90.

Host Hotels & Resorts Stock Performance

Shares of HST stock opened at $15.56 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.30. Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. has a 52 week low of $12.22 and a 52 week high of $19.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 2.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $10.79 billion, a PE ratio of 15.72 and a beta of 1.29.

Host Hotels & Resorts (NASDAQ:HST) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.55 billion. Host Hotels & Resorts had a net margin of 12.26% and a return on equity of 10.37%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. will post 1.88 EPS for the current year.

Host Hotels & Resorts Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.14%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Host Hotels & Resorts’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.33%.

About Host Hotels & Resorts

Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the management of luxury and upper-upscale hotels. It operates through the following geographical segments: United States, Brazil, and Canada. The company was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Bethesda, MD.