UBS Group Upgrades Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) to “Buy”

UBS Group upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report published on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $205.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $147.00.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. HSBC upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $124.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $177.00 to $207.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $135.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.74.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Up 0.5 %

DLR stock opened at $180.74 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $183.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $165.59. The stock has a market cap of $59.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 151.88, a PEG ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 0.64. Digital Realty Trust has a twelve month low of $131.42 and a twelve month high of $198.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

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

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

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 paid a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 410.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Matt Mercier sold 2,518 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.40, for a total value of $471,873.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Digital Realty Trust

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DLR. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Asset Dedication LLC bought a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Adirondack Trust Co. lifted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 68.6% during the third 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 last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 480.6% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 209 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC bought a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.