Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Stock Price

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) had its price objective decreased by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $215.00 to $195.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 5.31% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on AMT. Mizuho decreased their price target on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of 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. Four investment 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, American Tower has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $226.42.

American Tower Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:AMT opened at $185.17 on Thursday. 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 firm has a market cap of $86.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.13, a P/E/G 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’s 50-day moving average price is $192.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $211.11.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released 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 net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. American Tower’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that American Tower will post 10.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Balentine LLC bought a new position in American Tower during the third quarter worth $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 28.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $260,743,000 after buying an additional 314,769 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in American Tower in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,156,000. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in American Tower by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 95,149 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $22,128,000 after acquiring an additional 6,163 shares during the period. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management lifted its position in American Tower by 29.0% during the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,629,000 after acquiring an additional 1,995 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.