Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust stock opened at $8.38 on Tuesday. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $4.91 and a 52 week high of $8.67. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $7.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $6.96. The firm has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a PE ratio of -13.74 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.39 by ($0.61). Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative net margin of 12.90% and a negative return on equity of 4.29%. The business had revenue of $144.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $143.41 million. Equities analysts forecast that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Piedmont Office Realty Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,219,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $135,115,000 after buying an additional 394,282 shares during the period. Private Management Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 4,631,310 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $32,558,000 after buying an additional 14,784 shares during the period. Wilsey Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 50.2% in the 2nd quarter. Wilsey Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,899,800 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $28,274,000 after buying an additional 1,302,681 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,412,069 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $24,260,000 after buying an additional 209,963 shares during the period. Finally, Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC boosted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 1,449,081 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,303,000 after buying an additional 170,823 shares during the period. 84.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.