MetLife Investment Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

MetLife Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 7.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 89,631 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,801 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $14,505,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in DLR. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 4,843,432 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $783,812,000 after buying an additional 117,461 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 3.1% in the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 4,826,432 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $733,859,000 after purchasing an additional 146,183 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.8% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,730,168 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $719,222,000 after purchasing an additional 129,799 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,541,327 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $690,498,000 after purchasing an additional 228,585 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,351,319 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $357,518,000 after buying an additional 60,821 shares in the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Trading Up 0.7 %

DLR stock opened at $195.31 on Thursday. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a twelve month low of $130.00 and a twelve month high of $195.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 164.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $171.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $157.53.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last issued 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). The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 2.24%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.62 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 410.08%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on DLR shares. HSBC upgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $124.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $177.00 to $207.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $157.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Argus downgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $170.37.

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.