Is Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (PDM) A Stock to Avoid?

Because Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) has experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedge funds that elected to cut their entire stakes in the third quarter. Interestingly, David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw sold off the biggest investment of the 700 funds studied by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $0.7 million in stock. Matthew Hulsizer’s fund, PEAK6 Capital Management, also dropped its call options, about $0.3 million worth.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM). These stocks are CLARCOR Inc. (NYSE:CLC), Harbinger Group Inc (NYSE:HRG), Leidos Holdings Inc (NYSE:LDOS), and Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to PDM’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $609 million. That figure was $211 million in PDM’s case. Harbinger Group Inc (NYSE:HRG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) is even less popular than EDR. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not have uncovered the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None