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

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 11,089 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 315% compared to the average volume of 2,669 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Digital Realty Trust news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 3,400 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,224,091.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DLR. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 16.7% during the 3rd quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 798 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in Digital Realty Trust in the third quarter valued at $575,000. Czech National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 53.4% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 52,907 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,403,000 after purchasing an additional 18,411 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 2.3% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 121,633 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $14,720,000 after purchasing an additional 2,764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harrington Investments INC lifted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Harrington Investments INC now owns 13,010 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,574,000 after purchasing an additional 557 shares during the last quarter. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Digital Realty Trust Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of DLR traded up $1.36 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $142.85. The company had a trading volume of 1,798,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,956,292. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $141.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $136.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14. Digital Realty Trust has a 1 year low of $86.33 and a 1 year high of $154.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.54.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Digital Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 164.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DLR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $145.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $144.00 price target on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $154.00 price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $143.33.

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.