Corporate Office Properties Trust, a Columbia real estate investment trust, earned 33 cents per share for investors during the third quarter of 2006, compared to 18 cents per share during the same quarter in 2005.
The company also reported growth in its net income available to common shareholders of $14.5 million, an increase from $6.9 million a year earlier, it said Tuesday in its earning report.
“Office properties are a funny area because rents were down but REITs have done well,” said investment writer and strategist Harry Domash. “Office REITs are up so much that it?s really not a bargain for investors.”
Shares in the company in mid-day trading on Wall Street were down $1.22 to $47.85 per share with stock analysts recommending the stock be purchased, according to StockScouter, a division of Gradient Analytics Inc.
In other earnings reports released Tuesday, Baltimore-based FTI Consulting Inc., a legal and financial consulting firm, reported a loss of 1 cent per share for the third quarter, compared to a profit of 27 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.
The company, in a statement announcing its earning, attributed the loss to “restructuring costs.”
The Associated Press reported that FTI said revenue from the forensic and litigation-consulting division increased 23 percent to $46.8 million, reflecting demand in the nationwide stock-option backdating scandal. The company currently is involved in 40 backdating investigations, it told the AP.
FTI shares at mid-day Tuesday were trading at $27.99, up $1.53 per share.
Banking behemoth PNC Financial, which earlier this month agreed to buy Baltimore-based Mercantile Bankshares Corp., posted earnings of $1.28 per share in the latest quarter, beating analysts? expectations of $1.23 per share.
Its net income bolted to $1.5 billion, up from $334 million a year ago.
StockScouter on Tuesday ranked Mercantile Bankshares Corp. as a 4 out of a possible “10” best. It said the bank?s stock is expected to underperform the market in the coming months.
During the past year, Mercantile?s StockScouter rating held steady at 6.
PNC?s takeover of Mercantile is expected to close in the first quarter of 2007. It is subject to approval by federal regulators and Mercantile shareholders.
