Cohen & Steers Inc. Purchases 3,437,602 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT - Free Report) by 21.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,176,365 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 3,437,602 shares during the period. American Tower comprises 6.7% of Cohen & Steers Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Cohen & Steers Inc. owned 4.10% of American Tower worth $3,516,890,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $2,074,956,000 after acquiring an additional 129,192 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 537,136 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,164,851,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of American Tower by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,941,586 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,089,746,000 after buying an additional 455,225 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in American Tower by 2.1% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 107,345 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank reduced their target price on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of American Tower to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, American Tower presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $232.07.

American Tower Stock Up 2.3 %

American Tower stock traded up $5.03 during trading on Friday, reaching $223.03. 2,599,002 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,462,756. American Tower Co. has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56. The firm has a market cap of $104.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.10, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. 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 company's 50-day moving average is $208.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $202.65.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The firm's revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders 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 yield of 3.05%. 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. American Tower's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 141.37%.

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.