City Office REIT, Inc. (NYSE:CIO) Short Interest Update

City Office REIT, Inc. (NYSE:CIO) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 236,600 shares, a decline of 13.8% from the December 15th total of 274,600 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 265,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.9 days. Approximately 0.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On City Office REIT

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CIO. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of City Office REIT by 237.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 61,942 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $362,000 after purchasing an additional 43,562 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in City Office REIT by 23.0% during the 3rd quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 205,073 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,197,000 after buying an additional 38,285 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in City Office REIT by 34.7% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 93,546 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $546,000 after buying an additional 24,109 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in City Office REIT by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,268,416 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,317,000 after buying an additional 21,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in City Office REIT by 14.8% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 156,700 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $780,000 after buying an additional 20,200 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.47% of the company’s stock.

City Office REIT Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of City Office REIT stock traded down $0.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $5.16. The stock had a trading volume of 197,997 shares, compared to its average volume of 193,967. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $5.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $5.56. City Office REIT has a 12-month low of $4.02 and a 12-month high of $6.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $207.17 million, a P/E ratio of -12.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.98.

City Office REIT (NYSE:CIO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.11) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.36). The company had revenue of $42.37 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.02 million. City Office REIT had a negative return on equity of 1.48% and a negative net margin of 5.56%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.34 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that City Office REIT will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current year.

City Office REIT Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.75%. City Office REIT’s payout ratio is currently -95.24%.

About City Office REIT

City Office REIT is an internally-managed real estate company focused on acquiring, owning and operating high-quality office properties located predominantly in Sun Belt markets. City Office currently owns or has a controlling interest in 5.7 million square feet of office properties. The Company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for U.S.