Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Grows Stock Position in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR - Free Report) by 6.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 109,064 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 6,320 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.'s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $17,650,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in DLR. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in Digital Realty Trust during the 3rd quarter valued at about $5,374,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the third quarter valued at approximately $132,980,000. Polymer Capital Management HK LTD bought a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,092,000. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 4.5% in the third quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 13,175 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,112,000 after acquiring an additional 567 shares during the period. Finally, IHT Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 25.2% in the 3rd quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,074 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $981,000 after purchasing an additional 1,222 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.71% of the company's stock.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of Digital Realty Trust stock traded up $1.61 during trading on Friday, hitting $192.69. 2,073,824 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,090,059. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.00 and a 1 year high of $198.00. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $175.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $159.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 161.87, a PEG ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.61.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($1.58). Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 2.24%. The company had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.43 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.62 EPS. The business's revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 6.71 EPS for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Digital Realty Trust's payout ratio is 410.08%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $135.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Scotiabank increased their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $157.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $175.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Digital Realty Trust currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $170.37.

About Digital Realty Trust

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.