Diversified Enterprises LLC Purchases Shares of 1,263 American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Diversified Enterprises LLC purchased a new stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,263 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 227.0% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,364 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $550,000 after purchasing an additional 1,641 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 1,743 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 68.9% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 33,925 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,890,000 after purchasing an additional 13,834 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 88,610 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $20,607,000 after purchasing an additional 3,720 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,935 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,310,000 after purchasing an additional 508 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on American Tower from $215.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Barclays dropped their price target on American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.29.

Insider Activity

In other 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 value of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT opened at $211.02 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The company has a market capitalization of $98.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.04, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $192.33 and a 200 day moving average of $205.82. American Tower Co. has a 12 month low of $170.46 and a 12 month high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. American Tower’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current 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 given 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. American Tower’s payout ratio is 141.37%.

American Tower Company 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.