Robert W. Baird Cuts Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) Price Target to $9.00

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) had its price objective trimmed by Robert W. Baird from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PDM. Baird R W cut shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 17th.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of PDM stock opened at $7.19 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $893.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.41 and a beta of 1.19. 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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $8.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.27. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a one year low of $5.95 and a one year high of $11.11.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.37. The business had revenue of $143.23 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.16 million. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 4.82% and a negative net margin of 13.86%. Sell-side analysts expect that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s payout ratio is currently -79.37%.

Institutional Trading of Piedmont Office Realty Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 88.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 237,407 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,398,000 after purchasing an additional 111,596 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 45.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 478,560 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 72.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 148,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,519,000 after acquiring an additional 62,233 shares during the period. Choreo LLC raised its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 54,024 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $484,000 after acquiring an additional 2,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 12.3% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 60,002 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $606,000 after purchasing an additional 6,577 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.