Revisiting RLJ Lodging Trust: Performance Comparison with Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF Shares
Reduced Guidance from RLJ Lodging Trust Already Reflected in Current Share Prices
It's 2025, and the year's not been kind to RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ), underperforming the Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF Shares (VNQ) with a whopping 30% loss:
Remember when I gave RLJ a Strong Buy rating back in March? Yeah, not so great right now...
Digging deeper...
RLJ Lodging Trust (RLJ)
Let's check out the highlights from RLJ's Q1 2025 results:- Portfolio Comparable RevPAR saw a 1.6% increase, landing at $141.23.- Total revenues climbed to $328.1 million, up by 1.1% compared to the previous year.- Net income took a dive, plummeting by 33.2% from the previous year's figures, ending up at $3.2 million.- Adjusted FFO per diluted share beat the consensus estimate by a penny, settling at $0.31 [1][2][3].
RLJ's strategic moves include:- Selling a non-core hotel for a cool $24.3 million.- Repurchasing 2.7 million shares for roughly the same amount as the aforementioned sale.- Taking care of all 2025 debt maturities and fully paying down the revolver [2][5].
In terms of stock movement, RLJ's price has been on a slight upward trend, with gains of 2.65% on May 9, 2025, and 1.41% on May 8, 2025 [4].
Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF Shares (VNQ)
As for VNQ, there's not much recent data available since March 2025. As a real estate index fund, VNQ's performance is diversified across sectors like residential, commercial, and industrial properties.
When comparing RLJ and VNQ:- RLJ Performance: Although RLJ demonstrated slight improvements in RevPAR and total revenues, its net income took a substantial hit. But on the bright side, the stock price has risen [2][5].- VNQ Performance: Without specific data for the same period, comparisons aren't straightforward. However, VNQ's performance is known for its diversification, making it less subject to the performance of individual companies like RLJ.
In conclusion, RLJ has witnessed some positive trends in revenue and strategic moves, but its net income has dropped. There's no recent specific data on VNQ's performance to conduct a direct comparison, but it's clear that RLJ's volatility might be more noticeable compared to a diversified index fund like VNQ.
Investing in RLJ Lodging Trust (RLJ) has proven to be less fruitful than investing in the Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF Shares (VNQ), given RLJ's significant 30% loss this year in contrast to VNQ's yet-unknown performance for the same period. Despite RLJ's minor improvements in RevPAR and total revenues, its net income has notably declined, whereas VNQ's performance is known for its diversification, making it less susceptible to the performance of individual businesses like RLJ.
