Piedmont Office Realty Trust (PDM) Competitors

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

Is PDM or HIW a better dividend stock?

Piedmont Office Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.6%. Highwoods Properties pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.3%. Piedmont Office Realty Trust pays out -79.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Highwoods Properties pays out 210.5% 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 is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has higher valuation & earnings, PDM or HIW?

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
Piedmont Office Realty Trust	$570.32M	1.43	-$79.07M	-$0.63	-10.42
Highwoods Properties	$825.86M	3.59	$102.25M	$0.95	28.98

Do institutionals and insiders believe in PDM or HIW?

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

Is PDM or HIW 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
Piedmont Office Realty Trust	-13.86%	-4.82%	-1.93%
Highwoods Properties	12.37%	4.33%	1.70%

Do analysts prefer PDM or HIW?

Piedmont Office Realty Trust presently has a consensus price target of $9.50, suggesting a potential upside of 44.77%. Highwoods Properties has a consensus price target of $32.50, suggesting a potential upside of 18.04%. Given Piedmont Office Realty Trust's higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Piedmont Office Realty Trust is more favorable than Highwoods Properties.

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

Does the MarketBeat Community favor PDM or HIW?

Highwoods Properties received 57 more outperform votes than Piedmont Office Realty Trust when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.93% of users gave Highwoods Properties an outperform vote while only 51.10% of users gave Piedmont Office Realty Trust an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Piedmont Office Realty Trust	Outperform Votes 325 51.10%	Underperform Votes 311 48.90%
Highwoods Properties	Outperform Votes 382 60.93%	Underperform Votes 245 39.07%

Which has more volatility & risk, PDM or HIW?

Piedmont Office Realty Trust has a beta of 1.21, indicating that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Highwoods Properties has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor PDM or HIW?

In the previous week, Highwoods Properties had 8 more articles in the media than Piedmont Office Realty Trust. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Highwoods Properties and 6 mentions for Piedmont Office Realty Trust. Piedmont Office Realty Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat Highwoods Properties' score of 1.08 indicating that Piedmont Office Realty Trust is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Piedmont Office Realty Trust	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Highwoods Properties	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Highwoods Properties beats Piedmont Office Realty Trust on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.