Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Raises Holdings in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its holdings in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 17.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 29,638 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,343 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $4,506,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,503,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,986,458,000 after buying an additional 951,567 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position 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 worth $718,584,000 after purchasing an additional 678,165 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 4,680,249 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $674,143,000 after purchasing an additional 182,100 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,541,327 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $690,498,000 after purchasing an additional 228,585 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centersquare Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 2,600,217 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $360,858,000 after purchasing an additional 34,516 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on DLR. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $144.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised Digital Realty Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $144.00 to $170.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Argus lowered Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $143.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $154.00.

Insider Activity at Digital Realty Trust

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total transaction of $90,156.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,055 shares in the company, valued at $1,360,604.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Digital Realty Trust stock opened at $158.70 on Friday. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 52-week low of $113.94 and a 52-week high of $162.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $152.15 and its 200 day moving average is $147.32. The company has a market cap of $49.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.08, a PEG ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 0.60.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $1.38 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 5.93%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 135.56%.

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.