Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (PDM) Anymore

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently.

In today’s marketplace, there are dozens of metrics market participants can use to watch their holdings. A pair of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a superb margin (see just how much).

Equally as key, optimistic insider trading activity is another way to break down the financial markets. There are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to downsize shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if you know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a look at the key action encompassing Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM).

How are hedge funds trading Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 6 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -14% from the third quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

According to our comprehensive database, AEW Capital Management, managed by Jeffrey Furber, holds the largest position in Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM). AEW Capital Management has a $20.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.5% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $8.2 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that are bullish include Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Due to the fact that Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) has faced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedgies who sold off their full holdings at the end of the year. Intriguingly, David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments dropped the biggest position of the 450+ funds we track, valued at about $0.6 million in stock. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds at the end of the year.

Insider trading activity in Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM)

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time period, Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM). These stocks are Mack Cali Realty Corp (NYSE:CLI), Brookfield Canada Office Properties (NYSE:BOXC), CommonWealth REIT (NYSE:CWH), Kilroy Realty Corp (NYSE:KRC), and Highwoods Properties Inc (NYSE:HIW). All of these stocks are in the reit – office industry and their market caps are similar to PDM’s market cap.

With the returns shown by the aforementioned research, everyday investors should always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) is no exception.

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