Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) Shares Bought by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 186,156 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,702 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Piedmont Office Realty Trust were worth $1,324,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Private Management Group Inc. boosted its position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 4,468,246 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $25,112,000 after acquiring an additional 913,747 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,202,106 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $17,996,000 after acquiring an additional 204,467 shares during the period. Wilsey Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Wilsey Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,930,974 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $13,729,000 after acquiring an additional 113,641 shares during the period. Glenmede Trust Co. NA boosted its position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 86.6% during the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 1,695,612 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,529,000 after acquiring an additional 786,699 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust by 67.4% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,172,355 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,589,000 after acquiring an additional 471,945 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Piedmont Office Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of Piedmont Office Realty Trust stock opened at $6.73 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market cap of $833.78 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.82 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $6.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $6.46. Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $4.91 and a fifty-two week high of $8.05.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.65). The firm had revenue of $145.33 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $146.37 million. Piedmont Office Realty Trust had a negative net margin of 8.38% and a negative return on equity of 2.72%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Piedmont Office Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -125.00%.

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.