American Tower Co. (AMT) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.62 on April 26th

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 14th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 12th will be paid a dividend of 1.62 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, April 26th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 11th.

American Tower has increased its dividend payment by an average of 12.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. American Tower has a dividend payout ratio of 93.5% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Research analysts expect American Tower to earn $10.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.5%.

American Tower Stock Performance

NYSE:AMT opened at $188.32 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.29, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. American Tower has a 52-week low of $154.58 and a 52-week high of $219.10. The firm has a market cap of $87.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.22, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.67. The business’s fifty day moving average is $194.88 and its 200 day moving average is $193.02.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.10 by ($1.16). American Tower had a net margin of 13.31% and a return on equity of 12.80%. The company had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.34 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that American Tower will post 10.08 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 11,510 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.71, for a total value of $2,367,722.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,969 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,953,352.99. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 11,510 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.71, for a total value of $2,367,722.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,969 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,953,352.99. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Pamela D. A. Reeve sold 5,054 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.46, for a total value of $962,584.84. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,532,080.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AMT. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 101,474.3% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,474,342 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,219,094,000 after purchasing an additional 10,464,030 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of American Tower in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,008,567,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,221,901 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,343,186,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,533 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 15.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,231,486 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,532,063,000 after purchasing an additional 962,800 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,451,859 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,176,951,000 after purchasing an additional 790,819 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on AMT. StockNews.com lowered American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays increased their price objective on American Tower from $224.00 to $234.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. HSBC began coverage on American Tower in a research report on Thursday, December 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $245.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on American Tower from $236.00 to $230.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Mizuho began coverage on American Tower in a report on Monday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $205.00 target price for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $214.91.

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.