Piedmont Office: 3Q Earnings Snapshot

ATLANTA (AP) _ Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc. (PDM) on Thursday reported a key measure of profitability in its third quarter. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations.

The real estate investment trust, based in Atlanta, said it had funds from operations of $60.2 million, or 48 cents per share, in the period.

The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for funds from operations of 47 cents per share.

Funds from operations is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization.

The company said it had net income of $8.9 million, or 7 cents per share.

The commercial real estate investment trust posted revenue of $131.7 million in the period.

The company's shares have dropped 48% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $11.61, a decrease of 45% in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on PDM at https://www.zacks.com/ap/PDM