American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Short Interest Up 8.6% in April

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT – Get Rating) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,180,000 shares, an increase of 8.6% from the April 15th total of 3,850,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,010,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Tower

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AMT. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of American Tower by 101,474.3% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,474,342 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,219,094,000 after buying an additional 10,464,030 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in American Tower in the 4th quarter valued at $1,008,567,000. Cottage Street Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of American Tower by 17,322.3% during the 4th quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC now owns 1,495,527 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,486,943 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of American Tower by 15.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,231,486 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,532,063,000 after purchasing an additional 962,800 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in shares of American Tower by 53.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,347,688 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $535,555,000 after purchasing an additional 816,302 shares during the period. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on American Tower from $229.00 to $233.00 in a research note on Monday, May 1st. StockNews.com began coverage on American Tower in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on American Tower from $224.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on American Tower from $254.00 to $245.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 7th. Finally, Raymond James increased their target price on American Tower from $227.00 to $238.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $258.12.

American Tower Stock Up 2.4 %

AMT stock opened at $200.29 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $93.34 billion, a PE ratio of 66.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $200.53 and its 200 day moving average is $209.61. American Tower has a one year low of $178.17 and a one year high of $282.47.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 26th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.28 by ($1.56). The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.74 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 12.85% and a return on equity of 11.65%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that American Tower will post 9.25 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 14th were given a dividend of $1.56 per share. This represents a $6.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.12%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 13th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 208.00%.

About American Tower

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American Tower Corp. provides real estate investment services, and owns, operates, and develops multi-tenant real estate properties. It offers leasing of space on communications sites to wireless service providers, radio and television broadcast companies. It operates through the following segments: U.S.