Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Shares Sold by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System cut its stake in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 17,300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,100 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $2,800,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 36.0% during the 1st quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,448 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $353,000 after acquiring an additional 648 shares in the last quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the 1st quarter worth about $242,000. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 47,505 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,843,000 after buying an additional 1,103 shares during the period. Naviter Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 19,380 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,791,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 0.7% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 177,675 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $25,591,000 after acquiring an additional 1,162 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

DLR opened at $181.01 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $56.55 billion, a PE ratio of 50.28, a P/E/G ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $157.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $150.74. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $116.73 and a fifty-two week high of $193.88.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($1.58). The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 5.93% and a net margin of 20.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.62 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now directly owns 9,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,360,604.30. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. HSBC raised Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $124.00 to $160.00 in a report on Friday, October 4th. Barclays upped their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Argus cut Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $165.21.

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.