Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) Shares Down 6.5% – Time to Sell?

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM)’s share price fell 6.5% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $7.29 and last traded at $7.44. 293,773 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 51% from the average session volume of 602,315 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.96.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on PDM. StockNews.com downgraded Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, January 20th. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $11.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Baird R W downgraded shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $928.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.06 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.35. 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 earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.37. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 4.61% and a negative net margin of 13.47%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.68%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -79.37%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 809.2% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 3,955 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 3,520 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 34.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,809 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 1,241 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 4,916 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 1,666 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 6,004 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 1,216 shares during the period. Finally, Xponance Inc. acquired a new position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust during the fourth quarter worth $95,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.48% of the company’s stock.

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.