Digital Realty Trust, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.22 (NYSE:DLR)

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 1.22 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.07%.

Digital Realty Trust has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.7% per year over the last three years. Digital Realty Trust has a dividend payout ratio of 314.8% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Digital Realty Trust to earn $7.65 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 63.8%.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DLR traded up $1.00 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $159.16. The company had a trading volume of 1,896,772 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,393,337. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Digital Realty Trust has a twelve month low of $135.54 and a twelve month high of $198.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $172.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $169.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.80 billion, a PE ratio of 98.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.63.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $1.46. Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 10.85% and a return on equity of 2.97%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Digital Realty Trust

In related news, CFO Matt Mercier sold 2,518 shares of Digital Realty Trust stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.40, for a total value of $471,873.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on DLR. Barclays increased their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $135.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com cut Digital Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $210.00 to $185.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.95.

About Digital Realty Trust

Digital Realty Trust, Inc operates as a real estate investment trust, which engages in the provision of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. It serves the following industries: artificial intelligence (AI), networks, cloud, digital media, mobile, financial services, healthcare, and gaming.