Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Short Interest Up 8.7% in December

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) saw a significant growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,990,000 shares, a growth of 8.7% from the November 30th total of 6,430,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on DLR shares. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $157.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Digital Realty Trust currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $171.68.

Insider Buying and Selling at Digital Realty Trust

In other news, CFO Matt Mercier sold 2,518 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.40, for a total value of $471,873.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Digital Realty Trust

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DLR. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 501.7% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,326,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $700,224,000 after acquiring an additional 3,607,802 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 15,301.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,850,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $299,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,838,278 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 543.6% during the second 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 purchasing an additional 1,773,591 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the third quarter worth about $132,980,000. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE DLR opened at $177.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $58.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 149.02, a PEG ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 0.62. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $183.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $164.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Digital Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $130.00 and a 52 week high of $198.00.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($1.58). The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.43 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 2.24% and a net margin of 8.04%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.62 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is 410.08%.

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.