Eastern Bank Boosts Stake in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Eastern Bank lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 23,281 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $4,128,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the second quarter worth $25,000. Adirondack Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 68.6% during the third quarter. Adirondack Trust Co. now owns 199 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 480.6% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 209 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the third quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 84.4% during the third quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 271 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on DLR. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $168.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $147.00 to $205.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Digital Realty Trust presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.74.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Matt Mercier sold 2,518 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.40, for a total transaction of $471,873.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

Digital Realty Trust stock traded down $2.23 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $171.11. 906,055 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,788,460. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 12-month low of $131.42 and a 12-month high of $198.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 1.61. The stock has a market cap of $56.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 143.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $183.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $166.04.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($1.58). Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 2.24% and a net margin of 8.04%. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.62 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.71 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is 410.08%.

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.