Wells Fargo & Company Cuts American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Price Target to $195.00

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) had its price objective reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $215.00 to $195.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on AMT. Scotiabank decreased their target price on American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.42.

American Tower Price Performance

Shares of AMT stock opened at $185.17 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $86.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.13, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower has a 12 month low of $170.46 and a 12 month high of $243.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $192.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $211.04.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.45 by ($1.56). American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.15 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.50%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is 273.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Tower

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AMT. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in American Tower by 41.8% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,395,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,243,333,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885,421 shares during the last quarter. Drucker Wealth 3.0 LLC acquired a new stake in American Tower during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,417,000. Delta Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in American Tower by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. Delta Investment Management LLC now owns 1,303 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $253,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. MBB Public Markets I LLC grew its holdings in American Tower by 1,984.8% in the 2nd quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC now owns 32,898 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,395,000 after buying an additional 31,320 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Makena Capital Management LLC bought a new position in American Tower during the 2nd quarter worth $7,797,000. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.