Retirement Systems of Alabama Buys 6,360 Shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 2.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 253,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 6,360 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $41,090,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC increased its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 1.6% during the third quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 3,836 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,886 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $305,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Digital Realty Trust by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,061 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $334,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in Digital Realty Trust by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 527 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,087 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $176,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on DLR. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Digital Realty Trust from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $171.68.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of DLR opened at $185.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $178.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $161.33. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 1-year low of $130.00 and a 1-year high of $198.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.38 billion, a PE ratio of 155.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 0.62.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($1.58). Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 2.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.62 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.71 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 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 2.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 410.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Digital Realty Trust

In related news, CFO Matt Mercier sold 2,518 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.40, for a total transaction of $471,873.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust 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.