Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Grows Holdings in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 5.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,541,327 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 228,585 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $690,498,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 587,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $79,074,000 after buying an additional 9,158 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 102.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 19,528 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,813,000 after acquiring an additional 9,865 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 17.7% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 235,669 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,716,000 after acquiring an additional 35,456 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its position in Digital Realty Trust by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 137,892 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $18,558,000 after acquiring an additional 2,840 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 295.5% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,561,000 after purchasing an additional 23,659 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total transaction of $90,156.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,360,604.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of DLR stock opened at $158.93 on Monday. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 1 year low of $113.94 and a 1 year high of $162.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a current ratio of 1.78. The firm has a market cap of $49.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.15, a PEG ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $151.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $147.00.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($1.43). The firm had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.38 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 5.93%. Digital Realty Trust’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.07%. Digital Realty Trust’s payout ratio is 135.56%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $123.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $150.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Argus lowered Digital Realty Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $122.00 to $120.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $154.00.

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.