Alpha Cubed Investments LLC Decreases Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Alpha Cubed Investments LLC lessened its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 38.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 121,093 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 75,927 shares during the quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $22,210,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. lifted its position in American Tower by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. now owns 4,833 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $886,000 after acquiring an additional 224 shares during the period. Stokes Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in American Tower by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Stokes Capital Advisors LLC now owns 19,886 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,647,000 after buying an additional 832 shares during the last quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP increased its position in American Tower by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 936,011 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $171,674,000 after purchasing an additional 37,692 shares during the period. LVW Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in American Tower by 76.9% during the fourth quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 2,745 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $504,000 after buying an additional 1,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust increased its holdings in American Tower by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 1,436 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $263,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank decreased their price target on American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho decreased their price objective 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. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Tower currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $230.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AMT opened at $190.51 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.02 billion, a PE ratio of 80.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a 12 month low of $170.46 and a 12 month high of $243.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The business has a 50-day moving average of $192.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $211.54.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion during 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.40%. American Tower’s payout ratio is 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.