Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Sells 33,454 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. trimmed its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT - Free Report) by 55.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,815 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 33,454 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.'s holdings in American Tower were worth $4,918,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of AMT. State Street Corp boosted its position in American Tower by 3.1% during the 3rd 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. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in American Tower by 1.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,213,613 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $2,599,074,000 after buying an additional 204,426 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower in the 4th quarter worth about $1,164,851,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of American Tower by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,316,312 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $975,065,000 after acquiring an additional 107,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in American Tower by 0.9% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,422,273 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $981,455,000 after acquiring an additional 38,436 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on AMT. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded American Tower from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $210.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Hsbc Global Res raised American Tower to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Tuesday. They set an "overweight" rating and a $250.00 price target for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $232.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

American Tower Stock Performance

American Tower stock traded up $8.77 during trading on Thursday, reaching $226.67. The company had a trading volume of 1,848,995 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,389,225. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $200.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $204.16. American Tower Co. 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 $105.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 95.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.29 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is a boost from American Tower's previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.00%. American Tower's payout ratio is 141.37%.

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.