Short Interest in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Declines By 5.4%

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,120,000 shares, a drop of 5.4% from the July 31st total of 8,580,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,520,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.3 days.

Digital Realty Trust Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE DLR opened at $149.79 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.78. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $151.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $146.09. Digital Realty Trust has a 12 month low of $113.94 and a 12 month high of $162.58. The company has a market capitalization of $49.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 0.59.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.38 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 5.93% and a net margin of 20.58%. The firm’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 135.56%.

Insider Activity at Digital Realty Trust

In other news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the firm’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 sale, the director now owns 9,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,360,604.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Digital Realty Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DLR. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the second quarter worth approximately $48,000. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.3% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 32,379 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,923,000 after buying an additional 714 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its position in Digital Realty Trust by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 12,014 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,820,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new position in Digital Realty Trust during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,927,000. Finally, Regal Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,921 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on DLR. Argus downgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $122.00 to $120.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $144.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $154.00.

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.