Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Receives $153.44 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $153.44.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on DLR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $175.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $150.00 to $175.00 in a report on Friday, June 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $144.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $144.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Digital Realty Trust stock opened at $150.16 on Monday. Digital Realty Trust has a 12-month low of $113.94 and a 12-month high of $162.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $150.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $145.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.91 billion, a PE ratio of 41.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.97 and a beta of 0.59.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($1.43). Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 5.93%. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.68 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 135.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 value of $90,156.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,360,604.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the fourth quarter worth about $2,141,890,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,773,591 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Digital Realty Trust by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,503,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,986,458,000 after buying an additional 951,567 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the 4th quarter worth approximately $107,372,000. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 15,105.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 795,830 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $121,006,000 after purchasing an additional 790,596 shares during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Company 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.