Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) gapped up prior to trading on Friday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $190.00 to $205.00. The stock had previously closed at $165.13, but opened at $184.46. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Digital Realty Trust shares last traded at $192.10, with a volume of 1,425,543 shares trading hands.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. HSBC upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $124.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Argus downgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Digital Realty Trust from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Digital Realty Trust has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $165.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Digital Realty Trust

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 transaction of $90,156.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Digital Realty Trust

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 15,301.1% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,850,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $299,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,838,278 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 543.6% during 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 during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.0% in 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 buying an additional 951,567 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its stake in shares of 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 period. Finally, Electron Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 220.7% in 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 during the period. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Up 9.6 %

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $157.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $150.64. The company has a market capitalization of $56.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.28, a P/E/G ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60. 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 (NYSE:DLR) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.68 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is 135.56%.

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.