Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Hits New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• New 52-week high: Digital Realty hit a new 52-week high after Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $210 (from $195), with other firms also boosting targets and the stock trading as high as $191.90; consensus rating is a Moderate Buy with a $196.96 target.
• Earnings and guidance: The company beat Q4 estimates (EPS $1.86 vs. $1.83) with revenue up 13.8% year-over-year and set FY2026 guidance of $7.90–$8.00 EPS versus analyst expectations of about $7.07.
• Institutional ownership and dividend: Institutional investors own 99.71% of shares—Vanguard, Cohen & Steers and Norges Bank increased stakes—and Digital Realty pays a $1.22 quarterly dividend (annualized $4.88, 2.5% yield) despite a high payout ratio of ~135.6%.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR - Get Free Report)'s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $195.00 to $210.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Digital Realty Trust traded as high as $191.90 and last traded at $191.4760, with a volume of 1559793 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $188.87.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on DLR. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. TD Cowen restated a "hold" rating on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a report on Friday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Digital Realty Trust in a report on Thursday, March 5th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $218.00 price target on the stock. Finally, UBS Group set a $189.00 price objective on Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $196.96.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,260,359 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $8,394,620,000 after acquiring an additional 854,828 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 28,001,340 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $4,332,366,000 after buying an additional 4,276,073 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,402,995,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,649,053 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $3,219,256,000 after buying an additional 231,933 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,234,073 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,423,373,000 after buying an additional 197,180 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $178.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $168.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.18 and a beta of 1.07.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.03. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 5.88% and a net margin of 21.41%.The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.73 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Digital Realty Trust has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.900-8.000 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 7.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Digital Realty Trust's payout ratio is 135.56%.

About Digital Realty Trust

Digital Realty Trust, Inc NYSE: DLR is a real estate investment trust that owns, acquires and operates carrier-neutral data centers and provides related colocation and interconnection solutions. The company focuses on large-scale, mission-critical facilities that support the physical infrastructure needs of cloud providers, enterprises, network operators and content companies. Digital Realty's offerings are designed to enable secure, reliable and highly available IT infrastructure with an emphasis on power density, cooling, and physical security.

Digital Realty's product set spans wholesale data center space, turnkey build-to-suit facilities, and retail colocation suites, complemented by interconnection services that allow customers to establish private and public connections to networks, cloud on-ramps and other ecosystem partners.

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