Van ECK Associates Corp Grows Holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM)

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,612 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 2,390 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust were worth $263,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Optas LLC purchased a new stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust during the third quarter valued at about $101,000. abrdn plc increased its position in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 24,341 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $246,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 35,010 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $354,000 after buying an additional 2,016 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 34.8% in 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 last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 8.3% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 27,511 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $278,000 after buying an additional 2,111 shares in the last quarter. 84.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on PDM shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price (up previously from $10.00) on shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of PDM stock opened at $9.89 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.95 and a beta of 1.21. Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $5.37 and a fifty-two week high of $11.11. 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 has a 50 day moving average price of $10.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $8.62.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.46). The firm had revenue of $139.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $143.56 million. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative return on equity of 4.61% and a negative net margin of 13.47%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.43 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.06%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently -80.65%.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Company Profile

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.