Analysts Set American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Target Price at $235.85

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $235.85.

AMT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on American Tower from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on American Tower from $225.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of American Tower from $223.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Tower

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in American Tower by 41.8% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,395,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,333,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885,421 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 23,224.1% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 997,337 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $231,941,000 after purchasing an additional 993,061 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in American Tower by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,991,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,248,812,000 after purchasing an additional 965,938 shares during the period. M&G Plc bought a new position in American Tower in the 1st quarter valued at about $164,300,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in American Tower by 22,242.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 778,865 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,811,330,000 after buying an additional 775,379 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of AMT opened at $201.80 on Tuesday. 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 has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $226.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $209.83. The company has a market capitalization of $94.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 85.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.84.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that American Tower will post 10.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 9th. American Tower’s payout ratio is 273.42%.

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.