Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Short Interest Down 15.6% in October

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,650,000 shares, a decline of 15.6% from the October 15th total of 7,880,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,750,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 6.6% during the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,087 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $176,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 34.8% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 155,154 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $25,109,000 after acquiring an additional 40,064 shares in the last quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 69.7% during the 3rd quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC now owns 8,266 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,338,000 after acquiring an additional 3,395 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,587 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $912,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC grew its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 3,056.0% in the 3rd quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 4,229 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $684,000 after acquiring an additional 4,095 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DLR traded up $3.59 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $183.26. The stock had a trading volume of 2,316,409 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,866,850. The company has a 50 day moving average of $166.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $155.01. Digital Realty Trust has a twelve month low of $130.00 and a twelve month high of $193.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 1.61. The firm has a market cap of $60.79 billion, a PE ratio of 150.98, a PEG ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 0.59.

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 net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 2.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.62 EPS. Digital Realty Trust’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 410.08%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DLR. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $157.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $195.00 price objective (up from $185.00) on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Argus cut shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $135.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.84.

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.