Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Shares Acquired by BlackRock Inc.

BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 0.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,569,868 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 185,845 shares during the quarter. BlackRock Inc. owned about 9.46% of Digital Realty Trust worth $2,710,394,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DLR. APG Asset Management US Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 0.3% during the first quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 10,020,960 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $985,161,000 after buying an additional 26,148 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,170,504 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $704,925,000 after purchasing an additional 176,565 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 13.3% in the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 6,100,440 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $599,734,000 after purchasing an additional 715,291 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,007,565 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $601,306,000 after purchasing an additional 98,568 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in Digital Realty Trust by 11.8% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,875,817 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $577,652,000 after buying an additional 619,551 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $80.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. BNP Paribas raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $132.00 to $144.00 in a report on Friday, July 28th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $128.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a report on Monday, August 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Digital Realty Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.93.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Digital Realty Trust news, insider Cindy Fiedelman sold 2,770 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total transaction of $346,250.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Peter C. Olson sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.67, for a total transaction of $73,969.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 7,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $753,849.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cindy Fiedelman sold 2,770 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total value of $346,250.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DLR opened at $131.80 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $85.76 and a fifty-two week high of $133.39. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $121.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $107.33. The firm has a market cap of $39.90 billion, a PE ratio of 102.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.54.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is currently 378.30%.

Digital Realty Trust 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.