OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Increases Position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM)

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd grew its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) by 40.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 251,536 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 72,084 shares during the quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd’s holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust were worth $2,302,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 88.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 237,407 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,398,000 after buying an additional 111,596 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 45.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,534,770 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $15,501,000 after buying an additional 478,560 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 72.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 148,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,519,000 after buying an additional 62,233 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC grew its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 54,024 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $484,000 after buying an additional 2,078 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake 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 buying an additional 344,694 shares during the last quarter. 84.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PDM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 17th. Baird R W downgraded Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Piedmont Office Realty Trust from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price target (down previously from $11.00) on shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of PDM opened at $7.34 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $7.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.07. Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. has a one year low of $6.13 and a one year high of $11.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a current ratio of 2.10. The stock has a market cap of $912.55 million, a P/E ratio of -11.65 and a beta of 1.25.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 4.82% and a negative net margin of 13.86%. The company had revenue of $143.23 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $142.16 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.41 EPS for the current year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.81%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -79.37%.

About Piedmont Office Realty Trust

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.