Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 18,167 Shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. $DLR

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group sold 18,167 shares, trimming its stake by 0.5%; it now owns 3,690,547 shares (about 1.07% of Digital Realty) valued at roughly $571 million, and institutional ownership stands near 99.71%.
• Q results and guidance: Digital Realty reported $0.46 EPS (in line) and $1.64B revenue (+16.2% YoY) and set FY2026 guidance of 7.95–8.05 EPS, matching the sell‑side consensus of ~8.05.
• Valuation and payout concerns: the stock has a market cap of ~$69.3B and a PE of 52.4, pays a $1.22 quarterly dividend (2.5% yield) but carries a high dividend payout ratio of 128.76%, while analysts maintain a "Moderate Buy" consensus with a $213.86 target.

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR - Free Report) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,690,547 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 18,167 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 1.07% of Digital Realty Trust worth $570,966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Digital Realty Trust by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,260,359 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $8,394,620,000 after purchasing an additional 854,828 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Digital Realty Trust by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,930,551 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,543,914,000 after purchasing an additional 553,907 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. increased its position in Digital Realty Trust by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 8,638,801 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,481,122,000 after purchasing an additional 23,430 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Digital Realty Trust by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,647,534 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $976,346,000 after purchasing an additional 471,384 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Digital Realty Trust by 686.0% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,807,512 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $831,123,000 after purchasing an additional 4,195,862 shares in the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Digital Realty Trust Trading Down 1.1%

DLR opened at $198.51 on Tuesday. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.23 and a twelve month high of $208.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a fifty day moving average of $184.67 and a 200-day moving average of $170.85. The stock has a market cap of $69.27 billion, a PE ratio of 52.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.46 and a beta of 1.06.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.46. Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 21.73% and a return on equity of 6.05%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. Digital Realty Trust's revenue for the quarter was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Digital Realty Trust has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.950-8.050 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Digital Realty Trust's dividend payout ratio is 128.76%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on DLR. Evercore lifted their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $200.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. KeyCorp restated a "sector weight" rating on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $230.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a "buy" rating and a $207.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citizens Jmp upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Digital Realty Trust presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $213.86.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding DLR? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.