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

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM)’s share price gapped down before the market opened 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 traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, 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 report on Thursday.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of -14.02 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. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.26.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.46). Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 4.61% and a negative net margin of 13.47%. The company had revenue of $139.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $143.56 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid 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 dividend yield of 5.75%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -80.64%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Piedmont Office Realty Trust

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PDM. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 7,041.3% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 914,092 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,627,000 after purchasing an additional 901,292 shares during the period. Brookfield Corp ON acquired a new position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust during the 3rd quarter worth $7,123,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 358.6% during the 3rd 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 worth $9,050,000 after purchasing an additional 700,616 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 45.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 478,560 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,069,508 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,802,000 after purchasing an additional 344,694 shares during the period. 84.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.