Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Invests $2.31 Million in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 12,572 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $2,306,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Balentine LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower in the third quarter valued at about $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in American Tower by 28.5% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 314,769 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in American Tower during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,156,000. Czech National Bank grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $22,128,000 after buying an additional 6,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management raised its holdings in American Tower by 29.0% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,995 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT opened at $192.01 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $89.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $192.08 and a 200-day moving average of $211.24. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. American Tower’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. American Tower’s payout ratio is currently 273.42%.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In related 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AMT. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com lowered American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, American Tower has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.31.

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.