Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Hits New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $190.00 to $205.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Digital Realty Trust traded as high as $166.60 and last traded at $165.87, with a volume of 75344 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $165.80.

DLR has been the subject of several other research reports. Mizuho started coverage on Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price target for the company. HSBC upgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $124.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Argus lowered Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $165.21.

Insider Activity

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC acquired a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. Independence Bank of Kentucky lifted its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 633.3% during the 1st quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 1,100 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $158,000 after buying an additional 950 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Digital Realty Trust by 36.0% in the 1st quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,448 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $353,000 after buying an additional 648 shares during the period. Aviance Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $242,000. Finally, Little House Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the first quarter worth $2,436,000. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Up 9.6 %

The firm has a market cap of $56.55 billion, a PE ratio of 50.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $157.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $150.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. Digital Realty Trust’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.