Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Upgraded to Hold by HSBC

HSBC upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) from a reduce rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Friday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $160.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior target price of $124.00.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on DLR. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a buy rating and a $175.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $123.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Digital Realty Trust from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and increased their price objective for the company from $144.00 to $170.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $156.61.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of Digital Realty Trust stock traded down $0.30 on Friday, reaching $157.00. The stock had a trading volume of 1,120,926 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,845,592. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a current ratio of 1.78. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $153.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $148.33. The stock has a market cap of $49.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.14 and a beta of 0.60. Digital Realty Trust has a fifty-two week low of $113.94 and a fifty-two week high of $165.17.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($1.43). The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. 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 Digital Realty Trust 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 transaction, the director now owns 9,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,360,604.30. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the second quarter valued at $25,000. American Capital Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Digital Realty Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Private Ocean LLC acquired a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Gradient Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 75.2% during the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 177 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 1,125.0% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 196 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

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.