Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s (PDM) Buy Rating Reiterated at Truist Financial

Truist Financial restated their buy rating on shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Truist Financial currently has a $10.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $11.00.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Baird R W cut Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 17th.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PDM opened at $7.41 on Tuesday. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a one year low of $5.95 and a one year high of $11.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.22. The firm has a market cap of $920.38 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.75 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $8.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.26.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.37. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative net margin of 13.86% and a negative return on equity of 4.82%. The business had revenue of $143.23 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $142.16 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that Piedmont Office Realty Trust will post 1.41 EPS for the current year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.75%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -79.37%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PDM. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 88.7% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position 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. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 72.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 148,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,519,000 after buying an additional 62,233 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC increased its holdings in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 54,024 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $484,000 after buying an additional 2,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 12.3% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. 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.