Stifel Nicolaus Reiterates Buy Rating for Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR)

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $195.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $185.00. Stifel Nicolaus’ price target suggests a potential upside of 5.27% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Argus cut shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. HSBC raised Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $124.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays raised 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 report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price target for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $161.44.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

NYSE:DLR traded up $20.11 on Friday, reaching $185.24. 2,637,225 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,814,574. 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 stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $156.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $150.27. Digital Realty Trust has a 12 month low of $116.73 and a 12 month high of $193.88. The firm has a market cap of $57.87 billion, a PE ratio of 51.46, a P/E/G ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.38 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 5.93% and a net margin of 20.58%. The company’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.68 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total transaction of $90,156.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,360,604.30. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Digital Realty Trust

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of DLR. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Digital Realty Trust during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. American Capital Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Private Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Gradient Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 75.2% during the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 177 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Finally, Adirondack Trust Co. increased its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 68.6% in the 3rd quarter. Adirondack Trust Co. now owns 199 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

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.