Short Interest in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:WH) Declines By 17.9%

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:WH) saw a significant decline in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,300,000 shares, a decline of 17.9% from the January 15th total of 2,800,000 shares. Currently, 3.0% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 720,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on WH. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $114.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $116.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $99.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $110.30.

Institutional Trading of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Trust Co. of Vermont boosted its stake in shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts by 434.8% in the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 246 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts by 508.7% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 280 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts by 86.4% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the period. 93.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Price Performance

Shares of WH opened at $109.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.19, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $103.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $90.60. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has a 1-year low of $67.67 and a 1-year high of $110.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a PE ratio of 34.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.29.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:WH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.04. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts had a return on equity of 51.79% and a net margin of 18.29%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Wyndham Hotels & Resorts will post 4.3 EPS for the current year.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’s payout ratio is 48.25%.

About Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc engages in the franchise and operation of hotels under the Wyndham brand. It operates through the following segments: Hotel Franchising, Hotel Management, and Corporate and Other. The Hotel Franchising segment focuses on licensing the company’s lodging brands and providing related services to third-party hotel owners and others.