Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Purchases 9,504 Shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. $DLR

Key Points

• Rakuten Investment Management increased its Digital Realty Trust position by 17.3%, buying 9,504 shares in the third quarter to hold 64,296 shares valued at about $11.35 million.
• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $221.53; recent target changes included Citigroup raising its target to $234 and TD Cowen upgrading the stock to Buy.
• Digital Realty’s latest quarterly revenue rose 20.6% year over year to $1.90 billion, beating estimates, while EPS of $0.48 fell short of the $0.52 consensus.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR - Free Report) by 17.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,296 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 9,504 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.'s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $11,352,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 0.3% in the first quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 18,745 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $3,378,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. Denali Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 4,359 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $783,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Twin Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Twin Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,618 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,012,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,620 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $284,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV raised its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 10,675 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,924,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.71% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DLR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $226.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. KeyCorp restated a "sector weight" rating on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a report on Friday, July 24th. TD Cowen raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $192.00 to $222.00 in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce began coverage on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $213.00 target price for the company. Finally, Freedom Broker lowered their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $233.00 to $227.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned 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 an average target price of $221.53.

Digital Realty Trust Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of NYSE:DLR opened at $185.00 on Thursday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $180.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $183.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 1.06. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a one year low of $146.23 and a one year high of $208.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.99 billion, a PE ratio of 22.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.97.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.75 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 3.68% and a net margin of 13.06%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 20.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 8.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th were given a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. Digital Realty Trust's dividend payout ratio is 204.18%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Mark Patterson sold 200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.96, for a total value of $38,792.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,322 shares in the company, valued at $1,226,215.12. This trade represents a 3.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Digital Realty Trust

Digital Realty Trust, Inc is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and develops data center facilities for businesses, cloud service providers, information technology companies and telecommunications organizations. The company provides the physical infrastructure needed to support data storage, networking, cloud computing and other digital operations.

Its services include data center colocation, interconnection and private connectivity solutions. Digital Realty also offers access to cloud and network providers through its PlatformDIGITAL platform, which is designed to help customers deploy, connect and manage their digital infrastructure across multiple locations.

Founded in 2001, Digital Realty serves customers through a global portfolio of data centers and related facilities across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

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