Short Interest in City Office REIT, Inc. (NYSE:CIO) Declines By 7.0%

City Office REIT, Inc. (NYSE:CIO) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 294,600 shares, a decline of 7.0% from the August 31st total of 316,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 168,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.7 days. Currently, 0.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

City Office REIT Price Performance

NYSE:CIO traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $5.83. The stock had a trading volume of 129,964 shares, compared to its average volume of 205,665. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a current ratio of 2.80. City Office REIT has a 52 week low of $3.45 and a 52 week high of $6.70. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $5.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $5.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $234.10 million, a PE ratio of -20.89, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.96.

City Office REIT (NYSE:CIO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.14) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.41). City Office REIT had a negative return on equity of 1.07% and a negative net margin of 4.02%. The firm had revenue of $42.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $43.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that City Office REIT will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

City Office REIT Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. City Office REIT’s payout ratio is -142.86%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On City Office REIT

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new position in shares of City Office REIT in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $83,000. Sei Investments Co. purchased a new position in City Office REIT during the 2nd quarter valued at $72,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in City Office REIT by 21.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 19,451 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $97,000 after acquiring an additional 3,391 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in City Office REIT by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,268,416 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,317,000 after acquiring an additional 21,600 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in City Office REIT during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.47% of the company’s stock.

About City Office REIT

City Office REIT is an internally-managed real estate company focused on acquiring, owning and operating high-quality office properties located predominantly in Sun Belt markets. City Office currently owns or has a controlling interest in 5.7 million square feet of office properties. The Company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for U.S.