UPDATE: ISI Group Upgrades Corporate Office Properties Trust to Buy on Turnaround

ISI Group raised its rating on Corporate Office Properties Trust

from Hold to Buy and increased its price target to $27. ISI Group noted, "Earlier this week we hosted a series of meetings and tours at Corporate Office's headquarters in Columbia, MD with investors and OFC's senior management team. The bottom line is that we came away impressed by the progress management has made on several fronts, including: asset sales (sold $394mn since April '11, shedding many lower quality assets) and the corresponding impact on leverage and liquidity, progress on development leasing (including recent defense related leases at NBP and Huntsville), and finally the more conservative approach by management with regards to leverage and setting expectations which we believe is appropriate given the difficult DC market outlook." Corporate Office Properties Trust closed at $25.36 on Wednesday.