American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Short Interest Update

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,550,000 shares, a decline of 6.8% from the November 30th total of 4,880,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,430,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Tower

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in American Tower by 25.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,642,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,474,934,000 after purchasing an additional 2,152,646 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 41.8% in the second 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 purchasing an additional 1,885,421 shares in the last quarter. Adelante Capital Management LLC increased its stake in American Tower by 2,723.4% during the 3rd quarter. Adelante Capital Management LLC now owns 1,203,517 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $279,890,000 after buying an additional 1,160,890 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in American Tower by 23,224.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 997,337 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $231,941,000 after buying an additional 993,061 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of American Tower by 22,242.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 778,865 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,811,330,000 after acquiring an additional 775,379 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Stock Performance

NYSE AMT opened at $181.92 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $85.01 billion, a PE ratio of 76.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.83. American Tower has a twelve month low of $170.46 and a twelve month high of $243.56. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $201.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $212.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.45 by ($1.56). American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that American Tower will post 10.08 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.56%. American Tower’s payout ratio is presently 273.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AMT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.08.

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.