The Print

Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX) and Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR) each raised full-year 2026 guidance in earnings releases six days apart, and each dividend now sits against a different share of that higher number.

Equinix declared a $5.16 quarterly dividend on July 29, annualizing to $20.64. Its 2026 AFFO per diluted share guidance is $42.69 to $43.29, a midpoint of $42.99 raised from $42.31 to $43.11. The annualized dividend is 48.0% of that midpoint. Digital Realty declared a $1.22 quarterly dividend on Aug. 11, annualizing to $4.88. Its 2026 Core FFO per share guidance, stated on a basis that excludes net promote income, is $8.15 to $8.20, a midpoint of $8.175 raised from $8.00 to $8.10. The annualized dividend is 59.7% of that midpoint.

The two ratios are 11.7 percentage points apart. What produces that gap is not the same at each company’s own quarter.

Digital Realty’s Quarter Splits Between 46.0% And 57.3%

Digital Realty’s second-quarter Core FFO was $2.65 per diluted share. Against the $1.22 dividend, that is a 46.0% payout. The company also disclosed that it recognized $188 million of net promote income within that Core FFO figure. Core FFO excluding net promote was $2.13 per share for the quarter. Against the same $1.22 dividend, that is 57.3%. One quarter, one dividend, and an 11.2 percentage point difference produced entirely by which Core FFO line the payout is measured against.

Digital Realty’s second-quarter results separately disclosed a $94 million insurance settlement, net of income tax, of which approximately $27 million was recognized in Core FFO as business interruption recovery.

Equinix’s Quarter Is Not A Clean Number Either

Digital Realty is not the only one of the two whose quarter resists a single reading.

Equinix’s second-quarter AFFO was $1.168 billion, or $11.78 per diluted share. Against the $5.16 dividend, that is 43.8%. Equinix said second-quarter revenue, operating income and AFFO growth were driven by strong underlying performance and one-time xScale fees, without separately quantifying a dollar contribution from those fees. The second-quarter AFFO figure cannot be split the way Digital Realty’s second-quarter Core FFO can.

What The Full-Year Ratios Do Not Carry

Equinix defines AFFO as funds from operations adjusted for a list of items that includes non-real-estate depreciation, stock-based compensation, straight-line revenue and rent impacts, and recurring capital expenditures, and states that the measure may not be directly comparable to similar measures used by other companies. Digital Realty defines Core FFO on its own basis and states that other REITs may calculate Core FFO, and Core FFO excluding net promote, differently, so its own figures may not be comparable to other REITs’ Core FFO. Neither company presents its guidance denominator as a standardized figure against the other’s.

Digital Realty’s 2026 Core FFO per share guidance excluding net promote has moved three times: $7.90 to $8.00 when first issued alongside fourth-quarter 2025 results on Feb. 5, raised to $8.00 to $8.10 alongside first-quarter 2026 results on April 23, and raised again to $8.15 to $8.20 alongside second-quarter results on July 23. Each of the three ranges is tied to a different quarter’s earnings, not to the same guidance restated.

Equinix also raised its longer-range outlook, projecting 2027-2029 AFFO per share growth of 9% to 12% annually and stating that dividend per share growth is intended to approximate AFFO per share growth over that period. The company’s 2026 capital expenditures guidance is $5.0 billion to $6.0 billion.

The full-year ratios shift the denominator away from a single quarter. They do not make the quarter-specific items irrelevant.

Digital Realty’s guidance is already stated on an ex-net-promote basis, which is why the quarter’s 46.0%-to-57.3% swing does not carry into the 59.7% full-year figure the same way. That figure sits on the excluding side of the quarter’s own split.

Equinix’s full-year guidance carries no equivalent exclusion for the one-time xScale fees. Its guidance table shows the $42.31-to-$43.11 prior range moving to $42.69-to-$43.29 through a $0.46 per share guidance adjustment and a $0.18 per share foreign-exchange impact. The release does not quantify how much, if any, of that $0.46 adjustment reflects the one-time xScale fees recognized in the same quarter.

Neither ratio ranks the two companies. Each describes what one dividend claims against that issuer’s own stated basis for what the rest of the year is expected to produce.

Source: Equinix second-quarter 2026 results, Form 8-K accession 0001101239-26-000145, filed July 29, 2026; Equinix dividend declaration announcement dated July 29, 2026; Digital Realty Trust second-quarter 2026 results and supplemental, Form 8-K accession 0001104659-26-086270, filed July 23, 2026; Digital Realty Trust 2026 outlook summary, investor relations; Digital Realty Trust dividend declaration announcement dated Aug. 11, 2026. Payout calculations by Dividend Forensics Bureau from company-reported per-share figures. Both dividends are quarterly; the annualized figures used here are four times the most recently declared quarterly rate. Equinix defines AFFO on its own basis; Digital Realty reports Core FFO, and Core FFO excluding net promote, on its own basis. The two measures are issuer-defined and are not strictly comparable.

The author holds no position in any security mentioned. Structural research, not personalized investment advice.

Further dividend structure research is published at dividendforensics.com.

Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.