Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) Downgraded to Sell Rating by StockNews.com

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report released on Monday.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on PDM. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $11.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday. Baird R W lowered Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Price Performance

NYSE PDM traded up $0.03 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $8.81. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 446,382 shares, compared to its average volume of 720,512. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 2.22 and a quick ratio of 2.22. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a 1-year low of $5.93 and a 1-year high of $11.11. The company’s 50-day moving average is $9.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.20 and a beta of 1.19.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.09) earnings per share 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Piedmont Office Realty Trust

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,217,213 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $32,499,000 after purchasing an additional 48,944 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 0.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,719,641 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,467,000 after purchasing an additional 14,831 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in 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. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,162,619 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,742,000 after purchasing an additional 47,783 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 47.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,069,508 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,802,000 after buying an additional 344,694 shares during the period. 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.