Robert W. Baird Downgrades Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) to Neutral

Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research report released on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $11.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PDM opened at $8.76 on Thursday. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a 1 year low of $5.93 and a 1 year high of $11.11. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $9.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.46). The business had revenue of $139.29 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $143.56 million. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 4.61% and a negative net margin of 13.47%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.43 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -80.64%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Piedmont Office Realty Trust

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 88.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 237,407 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,398,000 after acquiring an additional 111,596 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 16.7% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 400,977 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,050,000 after acquiring an additional 57,347 shares during the period. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 7.0% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 53,425 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $387,000 after acquiring an additional 3,496 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 45.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,534,770 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,501,000 after buying an additional 478,560 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 72.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 148,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,519,000 after buying an additional 62,233 shares during the period. 84.48% of the stock is currently owned by 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.