Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) shares gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $8.84, but opened at $8.50. Piedmont Office Realty Trust shares last traded at $8.60, with a volume of 66,395 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on PDM shares. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $11.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday. 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.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Up 0.3 %

The company has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.20 and a beta of 1.19. The business’s 50-day moving average is $9.16 and its 200-day moving average is $9.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.22, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last posted its earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $143.56 million. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative net margin of 13.47% and a negative return on equity of 4.61%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict 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 was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.68%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently -80.64%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PDM. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 7,041.3% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 914,092 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,627,000 after buying an additional 901,292 shares in the last quarter. Brookfield Corp ON purchased a new position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust in the third quarter valued at $7,123,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in 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 valued at $9,050,000 after buying an additional 700,616 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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 buying an additional 478,560 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 47.6% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,069,508 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,802,000 after buying an additional 344,694 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.