Analysts Set American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Target Price at $232.07

Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twelve have given a buy recommendation and three have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $232.07.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AMT. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JMP Securities assumed coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of American Tower by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,924,091,000 after buying an additional 635,726 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 3,437,602 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $2,074,956,000 after acquiring an additional 129,192 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in American Tower by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,179,269 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,050,390,000 after purchasing an additional 537,136 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in American Tower by 66.5% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 3,421,413 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT opened at $220.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $103.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 93.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. American Tower has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $202.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $203.72.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. American Tower’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.29 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a $1.70 dividend. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s payout ratio is 141.37%.

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.