Ashford Hospitality Trust (REIT)

Hospitality REIT that has historically positioned itself as an almost opportunistic investor, not really focused on any particular geographic segment or hotel type and willing to invest at various levels in a capital structure. They once owned a large portfolio of mezzanine debt collateralized by hotels, much of which they bought at the peak of the market and had to write off.

I think of them as sort of the cowboys of the hotel REIT space, and it shows in their stock price. They were high-fliers pre-crisis, and were nearly wiped out in late-2008 / early-2009. They did some aggressive share buybacks in 2009 and drew down on their credit line (risky move), but it paid off when the market came started to recover. Unlike other REITs, though, they have a fairly cavalier attitude toward debt and have resisted deleveraging, and it's hurt them in the last year. They seem to think themselves fairly sophisticated from a capital markets perspective, and have actively played the interest rate markets by acquiring and unwinding hedges.

I don't know what it would be like to be an analyst there, but I would note two things: (1) the volatility of their stock price, and its recently depressed trading level, has made it difficult for them to make acquisitions lately and (2) their active stance toward the capital markets would likely carry over to the work performed by an analyst.