Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $175.00 to $185.00. The stock had previously closed at $165.13, but opened at $184.46. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Digital Realty Trust shares last traded at $192.10, with a volume of 1,425,543 shares changing hands.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on DLR. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $168.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. TD Cowen decreased their target price 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. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $158.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 29.8% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,538 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $366,000 after acquiring an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 122.4% in the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 407 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares during the last quarter. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the first quarter worth about $34,000. GoalVest Advisory LLC bought a new position in Digital Realty Trust during the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky grew 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 valued at $158,000 after buying an additional 950 shares in the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Trading Up 16.3 %

The firm has a market cap of $59.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.71, a P/E/G ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $150.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($1.43). Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 5.93% and a net margin of 20.58%. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.68 EPS. The company’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 fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is 135.56%.

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.