Piedmont Office Realty Trust (PDM) Competitors

Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW) and Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking, valuation and profitability.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in HIW or PDM?

Highwoods Properties received 56 more outperform votes than Piedmont Office Realty Trust when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.73% of users gave Highwoods Properties an outperform vote while only 51.18% of users gave Piedmont Office Realty Trust an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Highwoods Properties	Outperform Votes 382 60.73%	Underperform Votes 247 39.27%
Piedmont Office Realty Trust	Outperform Votes 326 51.18%	Underperform Votes 311 48.82%

Which has better earnings & valuation, HIW or PDM?

Highwoods Properties has higher revenue and earnings than Piedmont Office Realty Trust. Piedmont Office Realty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Highwoods Properties, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Highwoods Properties	$814.97M	3.84	$102.25M	$1.61	18.01
Piedmont Office Realty Trust	$568.47M	1.41	-$79.07M	-$0.49	-13.15

Do insiders and institutionals believe in HIW or PDM?

96.3% of Highwoods Properties shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.5% of Piedmont Office Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.9% of Highwoods Properties shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Piedmont Office Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is HIW or PDM more profitable?

Highwoods Properties has a net margin of 12.37% compared to Piedmont Office Realty Trust's net margin of -13.86%. Highwoods Properties' return on equity of 4.33% beat Piedmont Office Realty Trust's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Highwoods Properties	12.37%	4.33%	1.70%
Piedmont Office Realty Trust	-13.86%	-4.82%	-1.93%

Is HIW or PDM a better dividend stock?

Highwoods Properties pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.9%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.8%. Highwoods Properties pays out 124.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Piedmont Office Realty Trust pays out -102.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Piedmont Office Realty Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has more risk & volatility, HIW or PDM?

Highwoods Properties has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its share price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend HIW or PDM?

Highwoods Properties presently has a consensus target price of $31.83, suggesting a potential upside of 9.75%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $9.00, suggesting a potential upside of 39.64%. Given Piedmont Office Realty Trust's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Piedmont Office Realty Trust is more favorable than Highwoods Properties.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Highwoods Properties	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Piedmont Office Realty Trust	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Does the media prefer HIW or PDM?

In the previous week, Highwoods Properties had 6 more articles in the media than Piedmont Office Realty Trust. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Highwoods Properties and 4 mentions for Piedmont Office Realty Trust. Piedmont Office Realty Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.40 beat Highwoods Properties' score of 1.28 indicating that Piedmont Office Realty Trust is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Highwoods Properties	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Piedmont Office Realty Trust	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Highwoods Properties beats Piedmont Office Realty Trust on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.