If You Invested $10,000 in Digital Realty in 2012, This Is How Much You Would Have Today

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR)is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates more than 280 sites in 26 countries on five continents, and it's been sharing the wealth for a good long time now, with promising prospects for more ahead. The Austin, Texas-based company is one of the nation's largest REITs, with a market cap of about $44 billion, and it has been a solid performer, providing shareholders with 16 straight years of dividend increases from this top-shelf real estate investment. The performance is the result of growth for data centers, which have expanded from simple storage facilities to cloud-computing nodes and co-location sites for businesses large and small around the world.