Texas Yale Capital Corp. Acquires 255 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Texas Yale Capital Corp. boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,549 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 255 shares during the quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $2,302,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Graney & King LLC bought a new stake in American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust bought a new stake in American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in American Tower by 113.9% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 261 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

American Tower Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of AMT opened at $207.83 on Thursday. American Tower Co. has a twelve month low of $170.46 and a twelve month high of $243.56. The company has a market cap of $97.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $204.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $203.20.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS 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 issued a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 3.27%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 141.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on AMT. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $210.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $250.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Tower has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $232.07.

Insider Transactions at American Tower

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.