Verity & Verity LLC Has $263,000 Holdings in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Verity & Verity LLC lowered its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 75.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,730 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 5,221 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $263,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Digital Realty Trust during the second quarter worth $25,000. Gradient Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 75.2% in the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 177 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. American Capital Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Private Ocean LLC bought a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 1,125.0% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 196 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Digital Realty Trust

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on DLR. 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 report on Wednesday, June 26th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $122.00 to $120.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Argus downgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $175.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price target for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $154.28.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Digital Realty Trust stock opened at $160.31 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.78. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a one year low of $113.94 and a one year high of $165.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $50.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.53, a PEG ratio of 5.14 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $152.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $148.08.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last posted 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 135.56%.

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.