UPDATE: Stifel Downgrades Lexington Realty Trust on Valuation, Earnings Quality Call

In a report published Wednesday, Stifel analyst John Guinee downgraded the rating on

from Buy to Hold, and removed the $14.00 price target. In the report, Stifel noted, “We are downgrading Lexington Property Trust to Hold on the heels of 1) a recently announced $302mm ground lease investment and a 10% dividend increase, 2) followed by a very successful equity offering where 11.5mm shares were sold, netting LXP roughly $126.3mm, 3) which resulted in LXP trading up to close at $11.46/sh; a 4.0% increase in the last week vs the RMZ up 3.3%. LXP now trades at full valuation metrics relative to the office/industrial REITs we cover and Realty Income (O, Hold, $40.85), National Retail Properties (NNN, Buy, $32.45) and EPR Properties (EPR, Hold, $48.89) covered by our colleague Simon Yarmak.” Lexington Realty Trust closed on Tuesday at $11.46.