Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s What Happened

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Monday . Approximately 2,094,435 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 14% from the previous session’s volume of 1,834,839 shares.The stock last traded at $159.22 and had previously closed at $180.50.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on DLR. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $168.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. UBS Group raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $147.00 to $205.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Digital Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $185.00 to $194.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, JMP Securities assumed coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Monday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $220.00 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Digital Realty Trust has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $180.95.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $183.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $167.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 134.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.64 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is 410.08%.

Insider Activity at Digital Realty Trust

In other news, CFO Matt Mercier sold 2,518 shares of Digital Realty Trust stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.40, for a total transaction of $471,873.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Digital Realty Trust

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 501.7% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,326,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $700,224,000 after buying an additional 3,607,802 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 15,301.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,850,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $299,433,000 after buying an additional 1,838,278 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the third quarter worth $132,980,000. Ghisallo Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the second quarter worth $76,025,000. Finally, Sycomore Asset Management acquired a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the 3rd quarter worth $80,915,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

About Digital Realty Trust

Digital Realty Trust, Inc operates as a real estate investment trust, which engages in the provision of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. It serves the following industries: artificial intelligence (AI), networks, cloud, digital media, mobile, financial services, healthcare, and gaming.