Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) Short Interest Update

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,910,000 shares, a decline of 29.5% from the February 13th total of 2,710,000 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 775,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Down 1.1 %

PDM traded down $0.08 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $7.26. 167,750 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 756,372. The stock has a market cap of $902.24 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.48 and a beta of 1.25. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a fifty-two week low of $6.13 and a fifty-two week high of $11.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.22. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.10.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.16 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.41 EPS for the current year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.89%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -79.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Piedmont Office Realty Trust

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PDM. Vision Capital Corp raised its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 65.0% during the fourth quarter. Vision Capital Corp now owns 3,526,777 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $32,270,000 after buying an additional 1,389,477 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 58.8% in the fourth quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 2,281,624 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $20,877,000 after purchasing an additional 845,098 shares during the period. Brookfield Corp ON bought a new position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust in the third quarter worth about $7,123,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 358.6% in 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 worth $9,050,000 after purchasing an additional 700,616 shares during the period. Finally, Helix Partners Management LP bought a new position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust in the fourth quarter worth about $6,405,000. 84.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on PDM. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price 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. StockNews.com raised Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 17th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $10.00 price objective (down previously from $11.00) on shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Baird R W cut Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th.

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.