Focus Financial Network Inc. Increases Stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Focus Financial Network Inc. grew its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 3.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,872 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 68 shares during the quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $407,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AMT. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Tower in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Tower in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Graney & King LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Tower in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Tower by 218.0% in the 1st quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 159 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 109 shares during the period. Finally, Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AMT shares. Raymond James raised their target price on American Tower from $231.00 to $251.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. UBS Group raised their target price on American Tower from $245.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $240.25.

American Tower Stock Down 1.4%

American Tower stock opened at $214.76 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. American Tower Co. has a 1-year low of $172.51 and a 1-year high of $243.56. The company has a market cap of $100.54 billion, a PE ratio of 90.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $214.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $203.13.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.41 by $0.34. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.79 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 174.81%.

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.