Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) Shares Acquired by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,541,327 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 228,585 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 1.45% of Digital Realty Trust worth $690,498,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 587,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $79,074,000 after purchasing an additional 9,158 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 102.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 19,528 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,813,000 after buying an additional 9,865 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in Digital Realty Trust by 17.7% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 235,669 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,716,000 after buying an additional 35,456 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 137,892 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $18,558,000 after acquiring an additional 2,840 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 295.5% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,561,000 after acquiring an additional 23,659 shares during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Digital Realty Trust

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of Digital Realty Trust stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total transaction of $90,156.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,360,604.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $175.00 target price for the company. Barclays raised their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $123.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $122.00 to $120.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Argus lowered shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $175.00 in a report on Friday, June 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $154.00.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

DLR opened at $158.93 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.65 billion, a PE ratio of 44.15, a PEG ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a twelve month low of $113.94 and a twelve month high of $162.58. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $151.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $147.00.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($1.43). Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 5.93%. The company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. Digital Realty Trust’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.07%. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 135.56%.

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.