Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) shares gapped up prior to trading on Friday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $175.00 to $185.00. The stock had previously closed at $165.13, but opened at $184.46. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Digital Realty Trust shares last traded at $192.10, with a volume of 1,425,543 shares trading hands.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Digital Realty Trust in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $175.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $158.89.

Insider Buying and Selling at Digital Realty Trust

In other news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $1,360,604.30. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its position in Digital Realty Trust by 15,301.1% during the third 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 buying an additional 1,838,278 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Digital Realty Trust by 543.6% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,447,340 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $220,068,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773,591 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 951,567 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew 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 worth $121,006,000 after purchasing an additional 790,596 shares during the period. Finally, Electron Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 220.7% during the second quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,041,594 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $158,374,000 after purchasing an additional 716,816 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Up 16.3 %

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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $156.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $150.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.99 billion, a PE ratio of 52.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($1.43). Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 5.93% and a net margin of 20.58%. The company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 135.56%.

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.