Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) Stake Lowered by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC trimmed its position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) by 3.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,530 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC owned about 0.05% of Piedmont Office Realty Trust worth $578,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PDM. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 7,041.3% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 914,092 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,627,000 after purchasing an additional 901,292 shares in the last quarter. Brookfield Corp ON bought a new position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust during the third quarter valued at approximately $7,123,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 358.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 700,616 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 45.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 478,560 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PDM has been the subject of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $11.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com cut Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Baird R W lowered Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust stock opened at $8.76 on Thursday. Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. has a 1-year low of $5.93 and a 1-year high of $11.11. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.32. The company has a current ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.12 and a beta of 1.19.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.46). The firm had revenue of $139.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $143.56 million. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 4.61% and a negative net margin of 13.47%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

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.