Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR)

In the past six months, Digital Realty's stock has been impacted by several key events, including the release of its third-quarter 2025 financial results, where it missed EPS expectations but exceeded revenue projections, leading to a positive stock response. Digital Realty also raised its full-year 2025 financial guidance across multiple metrics for the third consecutive time. Core FFO per share reached a record $1.89, a 13% increase year-over-year. The company reported strong bookings of $201 million, with AI-related deployments accounting for over 50% of quarterly bookings since mid-2023, and record interconnection leasing. Analyst ratings and price targets have also seen adjustments, with some firms maintaining "Overweight" or "Buy" recommendations and raising price targets following the strong Q3 results. Additionally, the prospect of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve is seen as a potential positive catalyst.

Demand for Digital Realty's data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions is driven by secular tailwinds like digitization, cloud services, and AI, resulting in robust demand across customer segments. While overall demand is consistently strong, the company has noted a "typical seasonal increase in repairs and maintenance expenses along with the seasonal decline in utility expenses and related reimbursements" towards the end of the year, impacting operational costs rather than indicating seasonality in core services. The company's backlog and focus on AI-oriented deployments suggest sustained demand.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that specializes in owning, acquiring, developing, and managing data centers, providing data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions to various domestic and international customers across industries like cloud, IT, communications, finance, and healthcare. Its major offerings include PlatformDIGITAL® and Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx™), which help customers scale digital business and manage data challenges, with a focus on supporting AI infrastructure and high-density deployments.

Digital Realty has a substantial global presence, operating over 300 data centers in more than 50 metropolitan areas across 25 countries on six continents. As of late 2024, its real estate portfolio comprised 310 centers, with 121 located in the United States, 112 in Europe, 36 in Latin America, 16 in Africa, 16 in Asia, 6 in Australia, and 3 in Canada. The company maintains a presence in major metropolitan areas where data center and technology customers are concentrated, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Northern Virginia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Toronto in North America.

Digital Realty has maintained a strong brand reputation, driven by its performance and strategic positioning in the digital infrastructure market, recognized as a "linchpin in the global data-center ecosystem" and a "Dividend Dynamo with AI Tailwinds." Its positive reputation is fueled by strong performance related to AI workloads and digital transformation, strategic partnerships with technology leaders, and sustainability initiatives, including sourcing 75% of its energy from renewable sources globally. Challenges such as power availability, permitting hurdles, infrastructure constraints, rising operational costs, and impending debt maturities have been noted in earnings calls.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a high level of institutional ownership, with 2085 institutional owners and shareholders holding a total of 380,008,085 shares, representing approximately 99.71% of the stock. Major institutional owners include Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock, Inc., Cohen & Steers, Inc., Norges Bank, and State Street Corp. Other significant institutional holders include VGSIX - Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund Investor Shares, VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, VFINX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares, Geode Capital Management, Llc, and APG Asset Management US Inc. Individuals hold a very small percentage (0.02%).