American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Receives $232.07 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) have been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the sixteen analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twelve have issued a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $232.07.

Several brokerages have commented on AMT. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Citizens Jmp raised American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Hsbc Global Res raised American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Citigroup increased their target price on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th.

American Tower Stock Performance

NYSE AMT opened at $203.72 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. American Tower has a twelve month low of $170.46 and a twelve month high of $243.56. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $203.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $203.37. The firm has a market cap of $95.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 141.37%.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of American Tower stock in a transaction 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 $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,924,091,000 after purchasing an additional 635,726 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its holdings in American Tower by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 19,176,365 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,516,890,000 after buying an additional 3,437,602 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in American Tower by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,342,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,074,956,000 after acquiring an additional 129,192 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of American Tower by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,179,269 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,050,390,000 after acquiring an additional 537,136 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of American Tower by 66.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,563,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,570,547,000 after acquiring an additional 3,421,413 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.