Cetera Trust Company N.A Buys 170 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Cetera Trust Company N.A raised its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 14.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,340 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the period. Cetera Trust Company N.A’s holdings in American Tower were worth $246,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Balentine LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 3rd quarter valued at about $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in American Tower by 28.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $260,743,000 after purchasing an additional 314,769 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in American Tower during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,156,000. Czech National Bank raised its position in American Tower by 6.9% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 95,149 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $22,128,000 after purchasing an additional 6,163 shares during the period. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management raised its holdings in American Tower by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,629,000 after buying an additional 1,995 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Price Performance

Shares of AMT stock opened at $185.82 on Wednesday. American Tower Co. has a fifty-two week low of $170.46 and a fifty-two week high of $243.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.02, a PEG ratio of 1.28 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. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $192.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $211.47.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 273.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on AMT shares. Barclays decreased their price target on American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $230.67.

American Tower Profile

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.