Getty Images Digital Realty Trust ( DLR ) offers a solid platform for investing in the data center REIT sector, but the more compelling opportunity today is not in the common stock. While the common stock offers about 3.65% expected AFFO yield at a strong market valuation (Price/Book ~ 3.06 and forward AFFO ~27.36), DLR's preferred stock provides a current yield of about 6.4-6.5% and an investment...
Getty Images Digital Realty Trust ( DLR ) offers a solid platform for investing in the data center REIT sector, but the more compelling opportunity today is not in the common stock. While the common stock offers about 3.65% expected AFFO yield at a strong market valuation (Price/Book ~ 3.06 and forward AFFO ~27.36), DLR's preferred stock provides a current yield of about 6.4-6.5% and an investment-grade credit rating. DLR's overview (Digital Realty) DLR has close to $48.8 billion in total assets at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Its total debt is close to $19.45 billion, and its total revenue is around $6.31 billion. The EBITDA is approximately $2.88 billion. The company has over 300 data centers and over 55 metros. The current market capitalization of DLR is around $71 billion. It has credit ratings from the major credit agencies: a "BBB+" by S&P, a "BBB" by Fitch, and a "Baa2" by Moody's. Below you can see its top 20 customers and its diversified customer base: customer base (Digital Realty) 8% of its investment portfolio is in "Floating Rate Debt" and 92% in "Fixed Rate Debt": DLR's capital structure (Digital Realty) From Q1, we calculated the asset yield of the company to be close to 5.77% and the asset coverage ratio around 251%. The operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, are around 55.4% of the revenue. The interest expenses are close to 2.34% of the total debt. We use the price/book ratio, which at the timе of writing is 3.06, to cаlculаte the market-adjustеd ratios. The market-adjusted asset yield is around 2.8%, and the market-adjusted asset coverage ratio is close to 520%. The expected AFFO yield of DLR is around 3.65%—the forward price to AFFO is close to 27.36. Below are shown the basic valuation metrics of the company: DLR's basic valuation metrics (Seeking Alpha) Preferred Stocks DLR's preferred stocks (author's database) DLR has three preferred stocks: ( DLR.PR.J ), ( DLR.PR.K ) and ( DLR.PR.L ). All three are currently tr...
The post 1.5M+ People Spend Their Work Week In Headsets. The Under-$1 Pre-IPO Company Behind It Is Soon Closing Its Round for Retail Investors by Benzinga Contributors appeared first on Benzinga . Visit Benzinga to get more great content like this. Most private tech startups sell you promises and hype. Immersed is delivering real-world results. It built the #1 work app on Meta Quest, where 1.5M+ p...
The post 1.5M+ People Spend Their Work Week In Headsets. The Under-$1 Pre-IPO Company Behind It Is Soon Closing Its Round for Retail Investors by Benzinga Contributors appeared first on Benzinga . Visit Benzinga to get more great content like this. Most private tech startups sell you promises and hype. Immersed is delivering real-world results. It built the #1 work app on Meta Quest, where 1.5M+ professionals are logging up to 60 hours a week inside virtual offices. “I can’t emphasize enough how big a deal it was to find a place to focus in virtual reality,” a longtime tech reporter wrote in their review of Immersed. “The fact that VR cuts you off from the world always seemed to be a bug, not a feature. Now, I realize it can be both.” That kind of sustained use is rare. Here’s what that looks like in numbers: Over 2,000 cumulative years worked inside the platform $7M+ in revenue generated $29M raised from 7,000+ investors 75,000+ professionals on the hardware waitlist This isn’t based on assumptions. The usage is already there. “I have a choice between being in a public space, grabbing a collab room with some friends or just going solo in my own space,” one Redditor wrote of Immersed. “The community has been very supportive and I’ve made a lot of friends along the way.” Now, the company is building on that foundation. $71M in projected hardware demand Reserved NASDAQ ticker: IMRS Partnerships with Meta, Samsung, and Qualcomm You can still invest Pre-IPO at $0.72/share, before a potential IPO. Early investors include Tim Tebow and executives from Facebook, Reddit, Intel, and SailPoint. An investment opportunity you don’t want to miss Immersed changed the game in Spatial Computing (AR/VR), developing the Meta Quest store’s most-used AR/VR productivity app. They develop enterprise-grade software that enables professionals and teams to work full-time in shared virtual environments using AR/VR, supporting multiple virtual hi-res displays, real-time collaboration, and sea...
Alina Rudya/Bell Collective/DigitalVision via Getty Images Main Thesis & Background The purpose of this article is to evaluate the PIMCO California Municipal Income Fund ( PCQ ) as an investment option at the current market price. The fund invests primarily in California municipal bonds and therefore seeks to provide current income that is exempt from federal and California income tax. It seeks to...
Alina Rudya/Bell Collective/DigitalVision via Getty Images Main Thesis & Background The purpose of this article is to evaluate the PIMCO California Municipal Income Fund ( PCQ ) as an investment option at the current market price. The fund invests primarily in California municipal bonds and therefore seeks to provide current income that is exempt from federal and California income tax. It seeks to be “AMT-free” by investing only up to 20% in bonds generating interest that may subject individuals to the alternative minimum tax. PCQ is a fund I cover a few times a year, and it had a strong 2025 when I was bullish on it. This sentiment continued when 2026 got underway, but it has certainly disappointed thus far. Since my January article , PCQ has actually posted a negative total return, and that is hard to stomach in this backdrop! Fund Performance (Seeking Alpha) As the title of this review reads, this has surprised me somewhat. I see PCQ having a strong value proposition, I believe there is a favorable backdrop for munis overall, and I think the fund's income stream is attractive for highly taxed individuals (especially those residing in California). As such, this weakness suggests to me there is an argument for buying here. The poor performance of late is something I see changing in the second half of the year, and I believe a "buy" rating is still warranted. I will explain why in detail below. The Income Remains Competitive Given PCQ's marginal movement on share price, it should not be surprising that its income stream is similar to where it stood back in January. While some may not find this "good" on the surface, I see it that way because the fund's monthly yield is quite high. Even with inflation and interest rates elevated compared to where some thought they would be in mid-2026, a 5% yield from quality securities is still going to generate attention: PCQ's Monthly Payout (Seeking Alpha) What I see here is a yield nearing double digits on a tax-equivalent basis...
Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) keeps writing checks while the high-yield BDC space struggles this year. The Dallas-based business development company pays a $0.1934 monthly regular dividend plus a $0.06 quarterly supplemental, working out to roughly $0.64 a quarter on a stock trading near $24, an annualized yield investors depend on. The question worth answering is whether ... Capital Southwest’s...
Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) keeps writing checks while the high-yield BDC space struggles this year. The Dallas-based business development company pays a $0.1934 monthly regular dividend plus a $0.06 quarterly supplemental, working out to roughly $0.64 a quarter on a stock trading near $24, an annualized yield investors depend on. The question worth answering is whether ... Capital Southwest’s 11.3% Yield Holds Firm While BDCs Stumble in 2026
Eoneren/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Lumen Technologies, Inc. ( LUMN ) is down significantly on Wednesday, before the market opens, as I'm writing this article, following mixed quarterly results . This is an interesting company, which is positioning itself to benefit from this explosive AI data center buildout demand, and I'm sure most of the investors are here for this business segment. The c...
Eoneren/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Lumen Technologies, Inc. ( LUMN ) is down significantly on Wednesday, before the market opens, as I'm writing this article, following mixed quarterly results . This is an interesting company, which is positioning itself to benefit from this explosive AI data center buildout demand, and I'm sure most of the investors are here for this business segment. The company isn't new, though. It had been performing well in the past but started shrinking a couple of years ago, losing market share in the telecommunications industry. Right now, it is still in the turnaround stage, and it often results in higher volatility, which can be bad news for value investors but good news for risk-tolerant investors, who are open to trading Lumen or accounting for the market sentiment. Price Seeking Alpha I'm mainly focused on the tech industry, and I am bullish on AI, which makes me constantly look for new ideas in the space. Since AI-related stocks have been on a rally in the last month, often reaching all-time-high levels, Lumen looks like a potential candidate for me, especially if this 10% discount we see today is an overreaction. Today I'll try to answer this question for myself and share my findings and views with you. Since this is my first Lumen coverage, I'll start with a short explanation about the company, but if you're familiar, you can skip this section and jump directly to the quarterly overview and the news the company has shared. About Lumen As I already said, Lumen was a telecommunication company in the past, but they have been working for the last couple of years to become more than just an internet provider. The trajectory the company has picked involves innovation and investment in becoming the main network for AI, which looks very promising as of today. With the massive data center buildout, data center providers are constantly hitting a wall with different bottlenecks that have to be resolved. There is even a whole strategy in ...
Alphabet Inc. ’s debt issuance in Europe and Canada underscores Big Tech’s relentless drive to find funds anywhere to pay for the industry’s stampede into artificial intelligence, according to Matt Brill at Invesco. “The simplest answer is they need every dollar they can possibly get,” Brill, head of North America investment-grade credit, said Wednesday on Bloomberg Television’s Surveillance . “Th...
Alphabet Inc. ’s debt issuance in Europe and Canada underscores Big Tech’s relentless drive to find funds anywhere to pay for the industry’s stampede into artificial intelligence, according to Matt Brill at Invesco. “The simplest answer is they need every dollar they can possibly get,” Brill, head of North America investment-grade credit, said Wednesday on Bloomberg Television’s Surveillance . “They’ve already tapped the US market several times. Alphabet went to Europe earlier in the year. But they need more.” Tech companies continue to turn to debt markets to finance their AI ambitions, with investors snapping up the bonds despite signs of market saturation. Google parent Alphabet sold its biggest-ever euro-denominated bonds and its first Canadian dollar notes this week, raising almost $17 billion. Alphabet and so-called hyperscaler peers Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. are planning to spend as much as $725 billion this year on AI. Signs of investor fatigue are emerging, however, as the flood of issuance prompts buyers to demand higher compensation. Credit spreads for tech companies have widened, offering more yield than the historically tight trading ranges in the sector. “We get a higher premium than we’ve ever gotten in tech before,” Brill said. “Those used to be really tight trading names that really did not have a lot of spread to them. They now have some yield to them.” Tech companies are also facing increasing scrutiny about their capital spending, with stocks sometimes declining after corporate announcements. “Two quarters ago the incentive was to tell everybody that you were adding to capex, that you were going to do more,” Brill said. “And that’s gone away, because the debt markets did push back.” (This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.)
Merlin ( MRLN ) announced on Wednesday that it has entered into a securities purchase agreement with an existing fundamental institutional shareholder to raise $80M of equity capital via a private investment in public equity (“PIPE”). Under the terms of the agreement, the company will issue 8M shares of common stock and warrants to purchase 4M shares of common stock at a strike price of $6.67 per ...
Merlin ( MRLN ) announced on Wednesday that it has entered into a securities purchase agreement with an existing fundamental institutional shareholder to raise $80M of equity capital via a private investment in public equity (“PIPE”). Under the terms of the agreement, the company will issue 8M shares of common stock and warrants to purchase 4M shares of common stock at a strike price of $6.67 per share, with an expiry date of five years from the issue date. The company's shares were down 2.5% during early trading hours on Wednesday. Merlin currently has approximately $107M in cash and cash equivalents and, with this financing, expects total cash resources of $183M, reinforcing balance sheet strength and providing substantial financial flexibility to accelerate Merlin’s growth plan, 2026–2027 program milestones, and commercial launch timeline. "Proceeds from the investment will be used to support revenue generation and long-term value creation, including to advance and expand Merlin's core platform development, fund regulatory approval activities, scale program capacity, and support the execution and expansion of existing and new customer contracts," the company said. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. acted as lead placement agent, and TD Cowen acted as co-placement agent for the transaction. Latham & Watkins, LLP served as legal counsel to Merlin, Inc. Jones Day served as legal counsel to the placement agents. The parties expect the transaction to close on or about May 1, 2026. More on Merlin, Inc. Merlin: Evolutionary Flight Autonomy, Not AI Hype Merlin crashes 8% on $80M PIPE raise via share issuance; dilution impact Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Merlin, Inc. Historical earnings data for Merlin, Inc. Financial information for Merlin, Inc.