Friday, FBR Capital Markets upgraded LaSalle Hotel Properties (LHO) shares to Outperform and increased its price target to $23 from $13. The brokerage raised its fourth quarter EPS estimate to $0.27 from $0.24, and its 2010 estimate to $1.24 from $1.15.
Analyst Patrick Scholes upgraded the stock following October 22 slight pullback despite strong results and 10% decline from recent highs. Notably, valuation is now attractive compared with peers and historical range.
The analyst estimates LHO trades at 14.5x 2010 EV/EBITDA and 11.7x 2011 EV/EBITDA, which compares with its historical one-year forward range of 8x-15.5x. By comparison, peers Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. (HST), Diamondrock Hospitality Co. (DRH), and Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. (SHO) now trade at 1-2 turns higher than LHO, and historically LHO has traded at 1-2 higher than these companies.
Despite demand trends continuing to improve, one of the concerns the analyst has had with the lodging REIT group has been with valuations that seem stretched. However, the analyst views LHO's valuation as more reasonable than its peers, especially with its high-quality portfolio, industry-best balance sheet, and hotels that mostly have unencumbered management contracts.
Currently, LHO is up $0.39 or 2.00% and trading at $19.85.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.