Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Hits New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after Evercore ISI raised their price target on the stock from $160.00 to $175.00. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Digital Realty Trust traded as high as $166.60 and last traded at $165.87, with a volume of 75344 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $165.80.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on DLR. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $144.00 to $170.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Argus cut Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $158.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total transaction of $90,156.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,360,604.30. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 102.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 19,528 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,813,000 after purchasing an additional 9,865 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 295.5% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,561,000 after buying an additional 23,659 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 652.4% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 29,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,454,000 after buying an additional 25,399 shares during the period. Choreo LLC raised its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 86.8% in the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 8,782 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,336,000 after buying an additional 4,081 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 11.2% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,465,876 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $222,886,000 after buying an additional 147,689 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.78. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $156.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $150.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $51.78 billion, a PE ratio of 46.06, a P/E/G ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($1.43). The business had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.38 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 5.93% and a net margin of 20.58%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.94%. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is currently 135.56%.

Digital Realty Trust Company Profile

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL, the company's global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges.