Invesco Ltd. Boosts Stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT - Free Report) by 8.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,941,586 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 455,225 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. owned about 1.27% of American Tower worth $1,089,746,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Partners Group Holding AG boosted its stake in shares of American Tower by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 378,592 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $69,438,000 after buying an additional 28,988 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in American Tower by 28.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $260,743,000 after acquiring an additional 314,769 shares in the last quarter. TigerOak Management L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of American Tower in the fourth quarter worth about $1,102,000. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of American Tower by 29.0% in the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,629,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CCLA Investment Management increased its position in American Tower by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 432,891 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $79,344,000 after purchasing an additional 22,523 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company's stock.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

American Tower Price Performance

AMT traded up $4.93 on Friday, hitting $213.25. 2,555,413 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,466,286. American Tower Co. has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56. 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 has a market cap of $99.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $205.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $202.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.29 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $1.70 dividend. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This is an increase from American Tower's previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower's dividend payout ratio is 141.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AMT. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded American Tower to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Citizens Jmp raised shares of American Tower to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho decreased their target price on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $232.07.

American Tower 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.