Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) is a real estate company that owns, acquires, develops and manages technology related real estate. In other words it is a real estate investment trust. The company is almost wholly owned and it holds the ownership interests in joint ventures. As of the end of December in 20122 the company had owned 117 properties out of which most are located in North America, some in Europe and one in Asia. The company has taken over several locations this year which includes one in Ontario Canada in March 2013 and another one in Osaka In September 2013.
In the most recent trading the shares of the company took a dive by 15.27%. This dip follows the recent troubles for the company as it failed to meet analysts’ expectations for the third quarter earnings per share and also lowered the earnings guidance for the entire year. The company has lost almost 16% in value to date this year and is lagging behind the market as well. This will make a lot of investors speculate long over investing in the company even as Raymond James brought down the share rating from buy to market perform saying that DLR shares seem like a risk today.
Citing increasing competition from Amazon, Google and Microsoft, Highfields Chief Executive Jonathon Jacobson said that shares could dip to as low as $19 each. All the mentioned companies maintain their server farms on their own which means a cut in the possible market for DLR. Jacobson also said that the dividend which the company has maintained at $0.78 a share to be paid out for the year in December was not sustainable for the company. All this is grim news for DLR ltd. as it has its work cut out and investors will look at everything with a curious eye and make sure that the investment is well protected.
