Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) Upgraded at StockNews.com

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

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on PDM. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $11.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Price Performance

Piedmont Office Realty Trust stock opened at $7.39 on Monday. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a 1 year low of $5.93 and a 1 year high of $11.11. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $8.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.33. The company has a market cap of $915.74 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.91 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a current ratio of 2.22.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative net margin of 13.47% and a negative return on equity of 4.61%. The firm had revenue of $143.23 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.16 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $2,398,000 after purchasing an additional 111,596 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 478,560 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 62,233 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC raised its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 4.0% in 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 raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 6,577 shares in the last quarter. 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.