Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR)

Key Points

• Unusual bearish options activity: Traders purchased 3,148 put options on Digital Realty Trust, 87% above the typical volume of 1,685 contracts.
• Analysts remain generally positive: Digital Realty has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $220.26, despite mixed individual target revisions.
• Recent operating results were mixed: The company reported quarterly earnings of $0.48 per share, below the $0.52 estimate, while revenue of $1.90 billion exceeded expectations. It also pays a quarterly dividend of $1.22 per share, implying a 2.7% yield.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 3,148 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 87% compared to the typical volume of 1,685 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. BTIG Research increased their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $215.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, September 10th. Guggenheim upgraded Digital Realty Trust from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $189.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. HSBC reduced their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $240.00 to $235.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $207.00 to $227.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $220.26.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

NYSE:DLR traded up $3.44 on Thursday, hitting $183.21. The stock had a trading volume of 2,406,934 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,317,542. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $181.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $182.67. The stock has a market cap of $67.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.99. Digital Realty Trust has a 52-week low of $146.23 and a 52-week high of $208.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.75 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 3.34% and a net margin of 11.80%. As a group, research analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust will post 8.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Digital Realty Trust's payout ratio is presently 236.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Mark Patterson sold 200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.96, for a total value of $38,792.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,322 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,226,215.12. This trade represents a 3.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.15% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Digital Realty Trust by 0.3% during the first quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 18,745 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $3,378,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Columbia Bank increased its position in Digital Realty Trust by 0.9% during the first quarter. Columbia Bank now owns 6,167 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,111,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Denali Advisors LLC raised its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 1.3% during the second quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 4,359 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $783,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Twin Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 1.1% during the first 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 during the period. Finally, Axis Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Axis Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,672 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $301,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Company Profile

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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