Van ECK Associates Corp Increases Holdings in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR)

Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) by 14.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 124,622 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 16,061 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Digital Realty Trust were worth $16,772,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $450,000 after buying an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Digital Realty Trust by 1.1% in the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,175 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,110,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL grew its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 17,883 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,164,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. Lmcg Investments LLC boosted its stake in Digital Realty Trust by 2.2% during the third quarter. Lmcg Investments LLC now owns 4,620 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $559,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, First Financial Corp IN boosted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 46.6% during the 4th quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 324 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DLR has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays lifted their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $110.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Scotiabank lowered Digital Realty Trust from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $157.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, February 16th. StockNews.com downgraded Digital Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $155.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Digital Realty Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $143.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 3,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.50, for a total value of $494,700.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,224,091.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of DLR stock opened at $137.99 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 12-month low of $86.33 and a 12-month high of $154.18. The company has a market cap of $43.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $142.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.13.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.54%. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 164.31%.

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.