Leavell Investment Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 101.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,502 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,285 shares during the quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $1,700,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 102.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 19,528 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,813,000 after purchasing an additional 9,865 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 295.5% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,561,000 after buying an additional 23,659 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 652.4% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 29,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,454,000 after buying an additional 25,399 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 86.8% in the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 8,782 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,336,000 after buying an additional 4,081 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,465,876 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $222,886,000 after acquiring an additional 147,689 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on DLR shares. Argus lowered Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. HSBC raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the company from $124.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $177.00 to $207.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $190.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Digital Realty Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $167.68.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

DLR stock opened at $181.98 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $60.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 152.92, a PEG ratio of 5.58 and a beta of 0.59. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $126.22 and a fifty-two week high of $193.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $163.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $153.43.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.62 earnings per share. Digital Realty Trust’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is currently 410.08%.

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.