Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,990,000 shares, an increase of 8.7% from the November 30th total of 6,430,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 shares were 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 SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 3,836 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Digital Realty Trust by 3.2% in the third quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,886 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,061 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $334,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Digital Realty Trust by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 527 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $85,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 6.6% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Trading Up 0.6 %

DLR traded up $1.11 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $177.33. The stock had a trading volume of 1,434,047 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,871,554. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $183.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $164.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 149.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 0.62. Digital Realty Trust has a 1-year low of $130.00 and a 1-year high of $198.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.61.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.43 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.62 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is 410.08%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Raymond James lifted their price target 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. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $171.68.

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.