DLR · Real estate(real estate investment trusts) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. reported revenue of $6.1 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 12.4% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin narrowed from 23.2% in 2016 to 10.8%. Of the $16.2 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 72.9% went to dividends and 21.6% to acquisitions; the share count rose 130.8%. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 6 Piotroski tests; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20256.1B+12.4% a year over 9 years
Operating margin10.8%gross margin —
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow—
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score5/6tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
02.0B4.0B6.0B8.0B
2016Revenue 2.1BOperating income 497.3M
2017Revenue 2.5BOperating income 451.3M
2018Revenue 3.0BOperating income 549.8M
2019Revenue 3.2BOperating income 594.2M
2020Revenue 3.9BOperating income 557.5M
2021Revenue 4.4BOperating income 694.0M
2022Revenue 4.7BOperating income 590.0M
2023Revenue 5.5BOperating income 524.5M
2024Revenue 5.6BOperating income 471.9M
2025Revenue 6.1BOperating income 658.5M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+9.2%
+9.4%
+12.4%
Operating income
+3.7%
+3.4%
+3.2%
Net income
+51.3%
+29.7%
+13.3%
Earnings per share
+43.7%
-69.2%
+3.2%
Dividend per share
+0.7%
-74.3%
+4.1%
Shares
+5.3%
+321.1%
+9.7%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
0.0%10.0%20.0%30.0%40.0%
2016Operating 23.2%Net 19.9%
2017Operating 18.4%Net 10.1%
2018Operating 18.0%Net 10.9%
2019Operating 18.5%Net 18.1%
2020Operating 14.3%Net 9.1%
2021Operating 15.7%Net 38.6%
2022Operating 12.6%Net 8.0%
2023Operating 9.6%Net 17.3%
2024Operating 8.5%Net 10.8%
2025Operating 10.8%Net 21.4%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
5.7%
Return on assets
2.6%
Asset turnover
0.12×
Overheads (SG&A)
9.3% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
0500.0M1.0B1.5B2.0B
2016Net income 426.2M
2017Net income 248.3M
2018Net income 331.2M
2019Net income 579.8M
2020Net income 356.4M
2021Net income 1.7B
2022Net income 377.7M
2023Net income 948.8M
2024Net income 602.5M
2025Net income 1.3B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
16.2B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 0%0
Acquisitions 22%3.5B
Dividends 73%11.8B
Share buybacks 0%0
Kept, or used to pay down debt 5%891.1M
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$0.00$2,000.00$4,000.00$6,000.00
2016Earnings per share $2.83Dividend per share $3.46
2017Earnings per share $1.42Dividend per share $3.70
2018Earnings per share $1.60Dividend per share $4.11
2019Earnings per share $2.77Dividend per share $4.40
2020Earnings per share $1,357.59Dividend per share $4,429.26
2021Earnings per share $6.04Dividend per share $4.87
2022Earnings per share $1.27Dividend per share $4.87
2023Earnings per share $3.07Dividend per share $4.92
2024Earnings per share $1.82Dividend per share $4.93
2025Earnings per share $3.76Dividend per share $4.97
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
0100.0M200.0M300.0M400.0M
2016Diluted shares 150.7M
2017Diluted shares 174.9M
2018Diluted shares 206.7M
2019Diluted shares 209.5M
2020Diluted shares 262,523
2021Diluted shares 283.2M
2022Diluted shares 297.9M
2023Diluted shares 309.1M
2024Diluted shares 331.5M
2025Diluted shares 347.8M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
2× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
— current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
—
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
5of 6 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✓Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforepassed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
–Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell — not reportedno data
–More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
The accounts lack a line it needs (retained earnings, current assets or liabilities).
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
The accounts lack too many of the lines it needs.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
The effective tax rate is 2.4%.
Benign
A favourable geographic mix, or legitimate tax credits.
Worrying
Not sustainable; projecting it forward inflates the valuation.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.