American Tower (AMT) Competitors

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) and Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, media sentiment, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings and risk.

Do analysts prefer AMT or EQIX?

American Tower presently has a consensus target price of $242.31, suggesting a potential upside of 4.76%. Equinix has a consensus target price of $957.05, suggesting a potential upside of 21.22%. Given Equinix's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Equinix is more favorable than American Tower.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	14 Buy rating(s)	3 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.11
Equinix	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	20 Buy rating(s)	5 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.03

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of AMT or EQIX?

92.7% of American Tower shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.9% of Equinix shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Equinix shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, AMT or EQIX?

American Tower has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Equinix has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer AMT or EQIX?

In the previous week, American Tower had 4 more articles in the media than Equinix. MarketBeat recorded 40 mentions for American Tower and 36 mentions for Equinix. American Tower's average media sentiment score of 1.36 beat Equinix's score of 0.96 indicating that American Tower is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Tower	31 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Equinix	21 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is AMT or EQIX more profitable?

American Tower has a net margin of 17.34% compared to Equinix's net margin of 10.48%. American Tower's return on equity of 30.20% beat Equinix's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Tower	17.34%	30.20%	4.82%
Equinix	10.48%	6.96%	2.66%

Is AMT or EQIX a better dividend stock?

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Equinix pays an annual dividend of $18.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. American Tower pays out 174.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Equinix pays out 195.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Tower has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Equinix has raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years. American Tower is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, AMT or EQIX?

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than Equinix. American Tower is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Equinix, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Tower	$10.13B	10.69	$2.26B	$3.89	59.46
Equinix	$8.75B	8.83	$815M	$9.62	82.07

Summary

American Tower beats Equinix on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.