Walker Asset Management LLC Takes Position in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Walker Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 1,251 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DLR. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Digital Realty Trust during the second quarter worth $25,000. Gradient Investments LLC lifted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 75.2% during the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 177 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. American Capital Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Digital Realty Trust in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Private Ocean LLC bought a new stake in Digital Realty Trust in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, GoalVest Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Digital Realty Trust in the first quarter valued at $29,000. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on DLR shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. HSBC raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $124.00 to $160.00 in a report on Friday, October 4th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Argus downgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine 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 stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $158.33.

Insider Transactions at Digital Realty Trust

In related news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total value of $90,156.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,055 shares in the company, valued at $1,360,604.30. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of DLR stock traded down $0.71 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $165.09. 416,901 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,805,420. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $156.77 and its 200-day moving average is $150.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.78 and a quick ratio of 1.78. The stock has a market cap of $51.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.60. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 52 week low of $116.18 and a 52 week high of $166.60.

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

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is presently 135.56%.

Digital Realty Trust Company 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.