Digital Realty Trust, Inc. vs Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF — how do they compare? Digital Realty Trust, Inc. trades at $196.47 (market cap $70.61B), while Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF trades at $97.19. The key difference: Digital Realty Trust, Inc. pays a 2.56% dividend while Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF pays none, and Digital Realty Trust, Inc. is trading nearer its 52-week high, Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF nearer its low. Which is the better fit depends on your goals.
| DLR | VNQ | |
|---|---|---|
Market Cap | $70.61B | — |
Sector | Real Estate | — |
52-Week High | $203.91 | $100.95 |
52-Week Low | $147.93 | $87.00 |
Enterprise Value | $89.32B | — |
Dividend Yield | 2.56% | — |
Signals from Pluang's Aura AI — not financial advice
Digital Realty (DLR) trades at $191.3, down 1.29% on the day, with a bullish technical signal from moving averages and neutral oscillators. The company reported strong Q2 2026 earnings, beating FFO estimates and raising full-year guidance, driven by record leasing and robust AI-driven data center demand. Revenue grew to $6.11B in 2025, with net income margin at 11.8%, though valuation ratios like P/E of 241.53 appear elevated. A dividend of $1.22 per share was declared for H1 2026.
DLR's outlook is positive due to strong AI infrastructure demand and raised guidance, but high valuation and significant capital expenditures pose risks. Analyst consensus is bullish with a $216.56 price target, though investors should monitor execution on growth targets and debt levels amid expanding investments.
VNQ (Vanguard Real Estate ETF) trades at $96.745, down 0.38% on the day amid a bearish technical signal. The ETF shows mixed momentum with oversold short-term RSI readings but bearish moving averages. Recent institutional selling activity from firms like Bank of America and City Holding Co. indicates cautious positioning in the real estate sector. The fund's dividend yield remains a key attraction for income-focused investors.
The outlook for VNQ is challenged by rising interest rate sensitivity and institutional outflows, though the oversold RSI suggests potential for near-term stabilization. Investors should weigh the ETF's low expense ratio and U.S. REIT diversification against sector-specific headwinds including commercial real estate pressures and economic uncertainty.
Trailing returns across standard periods
Latest headlines on both assets
Digital Realty owns and operates nearly 300 data centers worldwide. It has more than 35 million rentable square feet across five continents. Digital's offerings range from retail co-location, where an enterprise may rent a single cabinet and rely on Digital to provide all the accommodations, to cold shells, where hyperscale cloud service providers can simply rent much, or all, of a barren, power-connected building. In recent years, Digital Realty has de-emphasized cold shells and now primarily provides higher-level service to tenants, which outsource their related IT needs to Digital. Digital Realty has also moved more into the co-location business, increasingly serving enterprises and facilitating network connections. Digital Realty operates as a real estate investment trust.
Read more on DLR →The fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the MSCI US Investable Market Real Estate 25/50 Index, an index made up of stocks of large, mid-size, and small US companies within the real estate sector. The Advisor attempts to replicate the target index by seeking to invest all of its assets in the stocks that make up the index, in order to hold each stock in approximately the same proportion as its weighting in the index. It is non-diversified.
Read more on VNQ →