American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Raised to "Overweight" at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Free Report) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has $230.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust's stock, up from their previous price objective of $210.00.

AMT has been the subject of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of American Tower to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. JMP Securities assumed coverage on American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $225.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded American Tower to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, American Tower has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $229.43.

Remove Ads

American Tower Stock Performance

American Tower stock traded up $2.14 during trading on Monday, reaching $216.41. The company had a trading volume of 6,326,073 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,271,097. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $195.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $205.66. American Tower has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week 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 capitalization of $101.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.29 EPS. American Tower's revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that American Tower will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is an increase from American Tower's previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.14%. American Tower's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 141.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Tower

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of American Tower by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $4,924,091,000 after acquiring an additional 635,726 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 19,176,365 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $3,516,890,000 after buying an additional 3,437,602 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of American Tower by 1.2% in the 4th 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 during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in American Tower by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,179,269 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,050,390,000 after acquiring an additional 537,136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 66.5% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company's stock.

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.