Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Hits New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Friday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $170.00 to $175.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Digital Realty Trust traded as high as $165.32 and last traded at $165.25, with a volume of 341058 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $163.69.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. HSBC upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $124.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Mizuho initiated coverage on Digital Realty Trust in a report on Thursday, July 11th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the director now owns 9,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,360,604.30. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. 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 worth $366,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC increased its stake in 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 last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise raised its position in Digital Realty Trust by 27.2% during the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 11,300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,628,000 after purchasing an additional 2,418 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital bought a new stake in Digital Realty Trust during the first quarter worth $310,000. Finally, BTC Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Digital Realty Trust during the first quarter worth $349,000. Institutional investors own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a market cap of $51.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $155.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $149.69.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($1.43). The business 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.68 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s 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.