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

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of City Office REIT by 44.3% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 171,952 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $894,000 after buying an additional 52,787 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in City Office REIT during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in City Office REIT by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,935,501 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $20,504,000 after purchasing an additional 29,345 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in City Office REIT by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 65,764 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 2,454 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in City Office REIT by 23.5% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 315,973 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,931,000 after purchasing an additional 60,197 shares during the period. 67.47% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

City Office REIT Stock Performance

Shares of City Office REIT stock traded down $0.01 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $5.83. 129,964 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 205,665. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 2.80 and a quick ratio of 2.80. City Office REIT has a 1 year low of $3.45 and a 1 year high of $6.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $234.10 million, a P/E ratio of -20.89, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.96. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.20.

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

City Office REIT Announces Dividend

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

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.