Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) Lowered to Hold Rating by Baird R W

Baird R W lowered shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Separately, 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.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:PDM opened at $8.76 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.23 and a beta of 1.19. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a twelve month low of $5.93 and a twelve month high of $11.11. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $9.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.26. The company has a quick ratio of 2.22, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.46). Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 4.61% and a negative net margin of 13.47%. The business had revenue of $139.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $143.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.71%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently -80.64%.

Institutional Trading of Piedmont Office Realty Trust

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 7,041.3% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 914,092 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,627,000 after acquiring an additional 901,292 shares during the period. Brookfield Corp ON acquired a new position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust in the third quarter valued at approximately $7,123,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 358.6% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 895,991 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,050,000 after purchasing an additional 700,616 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 45.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,534,770 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $15,501,000 after purchasing an additional 478,560 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,069,508 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,802,000 after purchasing an additional 344,694 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.