First United Bank & Trust Raises Stake in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

First United Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,592 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 308 shares during the period. First United Bank & Trust’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $743,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC grew its position in Digital Realty Trust by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 2,258 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $362,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 99.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 267,241 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $43,248,000 after acquiring an additional 133,326 shares during the period. Norway Savings Bank lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Norway Savings Bank now owns 9,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,510,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the period. Occidental Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 11,228 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,817,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 165,756 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $26,824,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $175.00 target price for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Digital Realty Trust currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.89.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

DLR opened at $161.21 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 52-week low of $113.94 and a 52-week high of $165.17. The company has a 50 day moving average of $154.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $149.34. The company has a market cap of $50.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.78, a P/E/G ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business 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 firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. Digital Realty Trust’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.03%. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is currently 135.56%.

Insider Transactions at Digital Realty Trust

In other news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total transaction of $90,156.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,360,604.30. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust 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.