Smith Moore & CO. Grows Stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Smith Moore & CO. boosted its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,760 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the quarter. Smith Moore & CO.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $873,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AMT. Partners Group Holding AG grew its stake in American Tower by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 378,592 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $69,438,000 after acquiring an additional 28,988 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of American Tower by 28.5% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 314,769 shares during the last quarter. TigerOak Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in shares of American Tower during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,102,000. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 1,995 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CCLA Investment Management grew its holdings in American Tower by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 432,891 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $79,344,000 after buying an additional 22,523 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $210.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. JMP Securities initiated coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $232.07.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Trading Down 3.4 %

NYSE AMT opened at $220.43 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $103.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 93.01, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. 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 Co. has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $202.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $204.19.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its 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. 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 last year, the firm posted $2.29 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% 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 year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.