American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $1.70

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 6th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a dividend of 1.70 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, April 28th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This is a 4.9% increase from American Tower's previous quarterly dividend of $1.62.

American Tower has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.5% annually over the last three years. American Tower has a dividend payout ratio of 92.2% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company's earnings fall. Equities analysts expect American Tower to earn $10.00 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.8%.

American Tower Stock Performance

American Tower stock traded up $5.56 on Friday, hitting $212.49. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,599,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,227,224. The firm has a market cap of $99.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $189.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $206.30. American Tower has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56.

Remove Ads

American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion for 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%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.29 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that American Tower will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

An institutional investor recently raised its position in American Tower stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT - Free Report) by 113.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,966 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 2,104 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC's holdings in American Tower were worth $727,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Mizuho lowered 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. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $220.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Citizens Jmp raised shares of American Tower to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $225.21.

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.