Global Medical REIT (NYSE: GMRE) stock was upgraded at Citizens, citing that the company is in the early stages of a positive transformation.

Shares were +0.69% Monday pre-market to $31.01.

"Over the last six months, GMRE has announced a number of changes to its leadership and capital structure which, we believe, is foreshadowing a larger organizational shift to functionally rebrand the company and enhance its institutional investment profile," said analyst Aaron Hecht.

"Major events that have occurred thus far include: the dividend being rightsized followed by a CEO change, share repurchase authorization, reverse stock split, enhanced supplemental disclosures, and improvement to the debt maturity profile," said Hecht in the research note.

"We think the next rounds of initiatives could be focused on improving messaging consistency while considering new investment property types. Ultimately, the company needs to become more efficient and, we believe, that will occur through G&A cuts or transformational growth (likely requiring M&A)," added the note.

"Under either scenario, shareholders should win with either higher earnings or a superior multiple through scale," said the research note.

Citizens raised its recommendation on the stock to Market Outperform, with a $40.00 price target.