American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $226.42.

Several research firms have recently commented on AMT. Scotiabank lowered their target price on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on American Tower from $215.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in American Tower by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,642,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,474,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,152,646 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 41.8% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,395,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,333,000 after purchasing an additional 1,885,421 shares during the period. Adelante Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 2,723.4% in the third quarter. Adelante Capital Management LLC now owns 1,203,517 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $279,890,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160,890 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 23,224.1% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 997,337 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $231,941,000 after buying an additional 993,061 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 22,242.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 778,865 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,811,330,000 after buying an additional 775,379 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AMT opened at $185.17 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $192.08 and a 200-day moving average of $211.04. The firm has a market cap of $86.53 billion, a PE ratio of 78.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. American Tower has a twelve month low of $170.46 and a twelve month high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. American Tower’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that American Tower will post 10.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. American Tower’s payout ratio is presently 273.42%.

About American Tower

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.