Brokerages Set Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) PT at $157.17

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-one research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation, ten have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $158.33.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on DLR shares. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $175.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

DLR stock opened at $165.80 on Friday. 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 has a 52 week low of $116.18 and a 52 week high of $166.57. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $156.77 and its 200 day moving average is $150.27. The firm has a market cap of $51.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.06, a P/E/G ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60.

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

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is 135.56%.

Insider Activity

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the business’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 transaction, the director now owns 9,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,360,604.30. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 543.6% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,447,340 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $220,068,000 after buying an additional 1,773,591 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,503,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,986,458,000 after purchasing an additional 951,567 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 15,105.0% in the 2nd 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 period. Electron Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 220.7% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 4,725,971 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $718,584,000 after buying an additional 678,165 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Digital Realty Trust

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.