Robert W. Baird Downgrades Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) to Neutral

Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $11.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Performance

NYSE:PDM opened at $8.81 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $9.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.28. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a fifty-two week low of $5.93 and a fifty-two week high of $11.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.20 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a current ratio of 2.22.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.46). Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative net margin of 13.47% and a negative return on equity of 4.61%. The company had revenue of $139.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $143.56 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.43 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -80.64%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PDM. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 34.8% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,809 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 1,241 shares during the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 51.3% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 4,916 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 1,666 shares during the period. Optas LLC purchased a new stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust during the third quarter worth $101,000. Arkadios Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust during the fourth quarter worth about $105,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. purchased a new stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $85,000. 84.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.