Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation, eleven have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $169.47.

DLR has been the subject of several analyst reports. HSBC upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $124.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $195.00 price target (up previously from $185.00) on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $157.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 2.5% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 4,843,432 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $783,812,000 after buying an additional 117,461 shares during the period. Capital Investment Counsel LLC increased its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Investment Counsel LLC now owns 46,374 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,505,000 after acquiring an additional 826 shares in the last quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 8.6% during the third quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $634,000 after acquiring an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 99.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 267,241 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $43,248,000 after acquiring an additional 133,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 11.9% in the third quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,549 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $413,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:DLR opened at $180.72 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $164.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $153.92. Digital Realty Trust has a 1 year low of $126.87 and a 1 year high of $193.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.78. The company has a market capitalization of $59.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 151.87, a P/E/G ratio of 4.83 and a beta of 0.59.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last released its earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.43 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 2.24% and a net margin of 8.04%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.62 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 410.08%.

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.