National Pension Service Acquires 53,355 Shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

National Pension Service raised its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 417,591 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 53,355 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned 0.13% of Digital Realty Trust worth $67,579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in DLR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,503,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,986,458,000 after acquiring an additional 951,567 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 3.1% during the 2nd 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 purchasing an additional 146,183 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in 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 valued at $719,222,000 after purchasing an additional 129,799 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $718,584,000 after buying an additional 678,165 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew 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 worth $690,498,000 after buying an additional 228,585 shares in the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DLR opened at $181.06 on Wednesday. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a twelve month low of $126.22 and a twelve month high of $193.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a market cap of $59.28 billion, a PE ratio of 152.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.66 and a beta of 0.59. The company’s 50 day moving average is $161.89 and its 200 day moving average is $152.79.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.62 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 410.08%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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 note on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $177.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $167.68.

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.