American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Director Sells $128,450.00 in Stock

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Director Robert D. Hormats sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.50, for a total value of $128,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,345,422. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

American Tower Price Performance

American Tower stock opened at $181.35 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $188.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $195.09. The stock has a market cap of $84.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.03, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.39. American Tower Co. has a 12-month low of $154.58 and a 12-month high of $219.10.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.43 by ($0.47). American Tower had a return on equity of 18.45% and a net margin of 18.42%. The business had revenue of $2.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.79 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 9.96 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 12th were paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.57%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 11th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 146.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on AMT. Raymond James raised shares of American Tower from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $226.00 to $248.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on American Tower from $236.00 to $230.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on American Tower from $243.00 to $223.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on American Tower from $228.00 to $220.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Tower has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $221.91.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Tower

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AMT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in American Tower by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,930,583 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,020,034,000 after purchasing an additional 196,942 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 16,440,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,549,366,000 after buying an additional 583,892 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in American Tower by 21.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,823,622 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,416,004,000 after acquiring an additional 2,839,570 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in American Tower by 36.2% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,794,776 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,737,760,000 after acquiring an additional 2,336,501 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its stake in American Tower by 3.7% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,269,957 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,195,545,000 after purchasing an additional 258,030 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

American Tower Company 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.