Advisors Asset Management Inc. Boosts Position in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 6.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 36,700 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 2,130 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $5,939,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in Digital Realty Trust by 3.1% in the second 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 during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 129,799 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 16.8% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 678,165 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position 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 valued at $690,498,000 after buying an additional 228,585 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 2.7% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,351,319 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $357,518,000 after buying an additional 60,821 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays raised their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $135.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $177.00 to $207.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.37.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE DLR opened at $187.49 on Friday. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 52-week low of $130.00 and a 52-week high of $193.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.19 billion, a PE ratio of 157.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $168.94 and a 200-day moving average of $156.03.

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

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.60%. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is currently 410.08%.

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.