Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday morning.

PDM has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $11.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Baird R W cut shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PDM opened at $7.29 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a current ratio of 2.22. The company has a market cap of $904.33 million, a P/E ratio of -11.76 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $8.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.34. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a 52-week low of $5.93 and a 52-week high of $11.11.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. The company had revenue of $143.23 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.16 million. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative net margin of 13.47% and a negative return on equity of 4.61%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.86%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently -80.64%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of PDM. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 949,300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,686,000 after purchasing an additional 136,300 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP increased its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 757,469 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,931,000 after purchasing an additional 80,648 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP increased its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,199,266 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,973,000 after purchasing an additional 36,647 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Institutional investors own 84.48% of the company’s stock.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Company Profile

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc (also referred to herein as "Piedmont" or the "Company") (NYSE: PDM) is an owner, manager, developer, redeveloper and operator of high-quality, Class A office properties located primarily in major U.S. Sunbelt markets. The Company is a fully-integrated, self-managed real estate investment trust ("REIT") with local management offices in each of its markets and is investment-grade rated by Standard & Poor's and Moody's.