Investors Buy Large Volume of Digital Realty Trust Call Options (NYSE:DLR)

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors bought 6,281 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 110% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,985 call options.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DLR traded up $1.92 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $160.85. 614,271 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,830,685. The stock has a market cap of $50.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.15, a PEG ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 0.60. Digital Realty Trust has a twelve month low of $113.94 and a twelve month high of $162.58. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $151.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $147.00. 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 (NYSE:DLR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($1.43). The business had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.38 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 5.93% and a net margin of 20.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.68 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 135.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Digital Realty Trust

In related news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total value of $90,156.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DLR. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 19.7% in the 4th quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,050 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $545,000 after acquiring an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 8,693 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,170,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new position in Digital Realty Trust during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,870,000. Level Four Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 64.3% in the 4th quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,679 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $495,000 after purchasing an additional 1,440 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 5,123 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $689,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $123.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Mizuho assumed coverage on Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $144.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $144.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Digital Realty Trust currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $154.00.

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.