American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the eighteen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have given a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $240.25.

Several equities analysts recently commented on AMT shares. Morgan Stanley started coverage on American Tower in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $250.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank raised their target price on American Tower from $234.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup raised their target price on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 434,118 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 21.8% during 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 1.2% during 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 during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 5.0% during 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 during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in American Tower by 66.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,563,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,570,547,000 after purchasing an additional 3,421,413 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

American Tower Price Performance

Shares of AMT stock opened at $215.14 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $215.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $203.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.43. American Tower has a 12 month low of $172.51 and a 12 month high of $243.56. The company has a market capitalization of $100.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.81.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.41 by $0.34. American Tower had a return on equity of 30.20% and a net margin of 17.34%. The company had revenue of $2.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.79 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.16%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 174.81%.

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.