Digital Realty Trust, the leading developer of wholesale data centers, has raised its revenue projections for the year, citing strong first quarter performance and expectations of strong demand for the remainder of the year.
Digital Realty (DLR) has added 8 cents per share to its guidance for 2010 Funds From Operations (FFO), the key financial measurement for real estate investment trusts. The company now expects FFO in a range $3.26 and $3.38, which equates to annual growth of 11.3 percent to 15.4 percent over the 2009 FFO of $2.93 per share.
"We continued to see increasing demand for data center space in the first quarter from corporate enterprises and IT service providers, particularly for our Turn-Key product," said Michael Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Trust. "This acceleration in leasing activity resulted in the strongest quarter of lease signings on record for our Turn-Key product."
The company previously announced that it had leased more than 241,000 square feet of space in the first three months of 2010. That included 171,000 square feet of new leasing for Digital Realty's turn-key program, which offers customers finished ”plug and play” raised-floor data center space.
Here's an overview of additional earnings details released this morning:
- FFO on a diluted basis was $84.4 million in the first quarter of 2010, or $0.81 per diluted share and unit, up 2.5% from $0.79 per diluted share and unit in the previous quarter, and up 15.7% from $0.70 per diluted share and unit in the first quarter of 2009.
- Net income for the first quarter of 2010 was $25.6 million, up 2.8% from $24.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 and up 20.8% from $21.2 million in the first quarter of 2009. Net income was $14.7 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, compared to $14.3 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009, and up from $10.3 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2009.
- Total operating revenues were $191.8 million in the first quarter of 2010, up 13.0% from $169.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 and up 28.6% from $149.1 million in the first quarter of 2009.
Digital Realty currently has $784 million of liquidity through short-term investments and funds that can be drawn on its revolving credit facility.
