Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $154.00.

Several analysts have commented on DLR shares. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of 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 research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Truist Financial increased their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $150.00 to $175.00 in a report on Friday, June 28th. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a report on Thursday, July 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $122.00 to $120.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total value of $90,156.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,055 shares in the company, valued at $1,360,604.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 543.6% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,447,340 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $220,068,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773,591 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,503,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,986,458,000 after purchasing an additional 951,567 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the fourth quarter worth about $107,372,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 15,105.0% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 795,830 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $121,006,000 after buying an additional 790,596 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Electron Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 220.7% during the second quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,041,594 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $158,374,000 after buying an additional 716,816 shares in the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DLR opened at $161.16 on Tuesday. Digital Realty Trust has a one year low of $113.94 and a one year high of $165.17. The stock has a market cap of $50.35 billion, a PE ratio of 44.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.14 and a beta of 0.60. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $152.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $147.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a current ratio of 1.78.

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

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.