Digital Realty Trust (DLR) & Its Competitors Head to Head Contrast

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) is one of 35 public companies in the “Specialized REITs” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Digital Realty Trust to related companies based on the strength of its earnings, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Digital Realty Trust and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Digital Realty Trust	0	6	26	2	2.88
Digital Realty Trust Competitors	520	2788	3668	191	2.49

Digital Realty Trust presently has a consensus price target of $221.53, suggesting a potential upside of 22.38%. As a group, “Specialized REITs” companies have a potential upside of 12.05%. Given Digital Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Digital Realty Trust is more favorable than its peers.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Digital Realty Trust and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Digital Realty Trust	$6.11 billion	$1.31 billion	75.74
Digital Realty Trust Competitors	$2.59 billion	$596.00 million	31.83

Digital Realty Trust has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Digital Realty Trust is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Digital Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $4.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Digital Realty Trust pays out 204.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Specialized REITs” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.3% and pay out 119.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Digital Realty Trust lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

Digital Realty Trust has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Digital Realty Trust’s peers have a beta of 0.92, suggesting that their average share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Digital Realty Trust and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Digital Realty Trust	13.06%	3.68%	1.77%
Digital Realty Trust Competitors	-5.29%	-3.21%	2.00%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.7% of Digital Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.0% of shares of all “Specialized REITs” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Digital Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.5% of shares of all “Specialized REITs” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Digital Realty Trust beats its peers on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

About Digital Realty Trust

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and develops data centers. Its facilities support customers’ IT infrastructure, including the equipment and systems used to store, process and exchange digital information. The company provides data center space and related services, including colocation, interconnection and access to cloud and network providers. Its PlatformDIGITAL offering connects businesses with customers, partners and service providers across its data center portfolio.