Ashton Thomas Securities LLC Makes New $47,000 Investment in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 290 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $47,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 2.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 951,567 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 4,826,432 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $733,859,000 after acquiring an additional 146,183 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,730,168 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $719,222,000 after acquiring an additional 129,799 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 16.8% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 4,725,971 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $718,584,000 after acquiring an additional 678,165 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 5.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,541,327 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $690,498,000 after purchasing an additional 228,585 shares during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DLR opened at $178.13 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 149.69, a PEG ratio of 4.80 and a beta of 0.59. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $164.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $154.18. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 12 month low of $130.00 and a 12 month high of $193.88.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($1.58). The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.43 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 2.24%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.62 EPS. Analysts expect that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.71 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.74%. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 410.08%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. HSBC raised Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $124.00 to $160.00 in a report on Friday, October 4th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $157.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $195.00 target price (up previously from $185.00) on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $169.47.

Digital Realty Trust 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.