Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) Stock Sees Heavy Put Option Buying

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 3,148 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 87% compared to the typical volume of 1,685 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Mark Patterson sold 200 shares of Digital Realty Trust stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 3.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Digital Realty Trust

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Montecito Bank & Trust grew its position in Digital Realty Trust by 413.2% in the third quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust now owns 22,915 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,022,000 after acquiring an additional 18,450 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 88.0% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 43,832 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,871,000 after purchasing an additional 20,513 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 40.6% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 88,953 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,978,000 after buying an additional 25,667 shares during the period. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the second quarter valued at approximately $3,286,000. Finally, Galaxy Digital Capital Management GP LLC acquired a new stake in Digital Realty Trust in the second quarter worth $2,837,000. 99.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Digital Realty Trust

Here are the key news stories impacting Digital Realty Trust this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Third-quarter FFO and revenue exceeded expectations. Core FFO was $2.10 per share, beating estimates by $0.10, while revenue reached approximately $1.90 billion—$140 million above consensus—and increased 20.6% year over year. Digital Realty Trust FFO and revenue results
• Positive Sentiment: Improving data-center fundamentals supported the outlook. Record bookings, higher occupancy and stronger rental rates drove double-digit core FFO growth. Management raised its 2026 core FFO outlook to $8.30-$8.35 per share, broadly in line with the FactSet estimate of $8.34. DLR Q3 FFO and revenue outlook
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised their price targets and maintained bullish ratings. Wells Fargo lifted its target to $225 from $220, Cantor Fitzgerald raised its target to $223 from $221, and Citigroup increased its target to $234 from $226. Wells Fargo and Cantor Fitzgerald both retained “overweight” ratings. Wells Fargo Digital Realty Trust rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor focus remains on execution and valuation. The raised outlook was close to existing expectations, limiting the potential for a major positive surprise. DLR also trades at a high earnings multiple, making the stock sensitive to interest rates and any slowdown in data-center demand.
• Negative Sentiment: Reported EPS missed the consensus estimate. Digital Realty posted quarterly EPS of $0.48 versus expectations of $0.52, despite the revenue beat. The earnings shortfall may have prompted profit-taking and helped offset the stronger FFO and operating metrics. Digital Realty Trust quarterly earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Put-option activity increased. Traders purchased 3,148 put options, approximately 87% above typical volume, signaling increased near-term hedging or bearish speculation.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DLR has been the subject of several research reports. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Digital Realty Trust from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $230.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $226.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. HSBC dropped their price objective on Digital Realty Trust from $240.00 to $235.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. Finally, Guggenheim raised Digital Realty Trust from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $221.35.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Down 1.4%

Digital Realty Trust stock opened at $180.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $66.88 billion, a PE ratio of 75.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.99. Digital Realty Trust has a 12 month low of $146.23 and a 12 month high of $208.14. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $181.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $182.91.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). Digital Realty Trust had a return on equity of 3.81% and a net margin of 13.06%. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.75 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.89 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Digital Realty Trust will post 8.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th were issued a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 15th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 204.18%.

About Digital Realty Trust

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.