Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR)

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors purchased 6,281 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 110% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,985 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on DLR shares. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $160.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $122.00 to $120.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Digital Realty Trust from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $144.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $154.00.

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

NYSE DLR traded up $1.92 on Monday, reaching $160.85. The company had a trading volume of 1,467,672 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,835,480. The company has a quick ratio of 1.78, a current ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.25 billion, a PE ratio of 44.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 0.60. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $151.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $147.10. Digital Realty Trust has a 12 month low of $113.94 and a 12 month high of $162.58.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($1.43). The company had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.38 billion. Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 5.93%. The business's revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Digital Realty Trust will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid 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 3.03%. Digital Realty Trust's payout ratio is currently 135.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.26, for a total value of $90,156.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,055 shares in the company, valued at $1,360,604.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DLR. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 543.6% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,447,340 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $220,068,000 after buying an additional 1,773,591 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,503,593 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $6,986,458,000 after buying an additional 951,567 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the 4th quarter worth $107,372,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 15,105.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 795,830 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $121,006,000 after buying an additional 790,596 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Electron Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 220.7% during the 2nd quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,041,594 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $158,374,000 after purchasing an additional 716,816 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Digital Realty Trust Company 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.