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

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.22 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.48%.

Digital Realty Trust has increased its dividend by an average of 2.9% annually over the last three years. Digital Realty Trust has a payout ratio of 387.3% indicating that 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 $7.18 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 68.0%.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Down 3.0 %

NYSE:DLR traded down $4.38 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $140.25. 6,515,155 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,013,553. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. Digital Realty Trust has a fifty-two week low of $86.33 and a fifty-two week high of $154.18. The company has a market capitalization of $43.82 billion, a PE ratio of 39.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $142.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $137.93.

Insider Activity at Digital Realty Trust

In other news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 3,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.50, for a total transaction of $494,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,224,091.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on DLR shares. Scotiabank cut 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 research report on Friday, February 16th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $144.00 target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $100.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $142.65.

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.