American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) have received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the eighteen brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $240.25.

Several research firms have issued reports on AMT. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of American Tower from $234.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. JMP Securities increased their target price on shares of American Tower from $248.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of American Tower from $245.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT stock opened at $211.89 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $99.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.41, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.86. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $215.21 and its 200 day moving average is $201.65. American Tower has a 12 month low of $172.51 and a 12 month high of $243.56.

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

American Tower Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. American Tower’s payout ratio is 174.81%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Tower

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in American Tower by 0.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,809,486 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $13,667,344,000 after acquiring an additional 434,118 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 21.8% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 19,176,365 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,516,890,000 after buying an additional 3,437,602 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,342,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,074,956,000 after buying an additional 129,192 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,179,269 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,050,390,000 after buying an additional 537,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 66.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,563,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,570,547,000 after buying an additional 3,421,413 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

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.