American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company to Overweight Rating

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of American Tower (NYSE:AMT) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report issued on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $230.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $210.00.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Citizens Jmp upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $228.79.

American Tower Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AMT opened at $213.17 on Monday. American Tower has a twelve month low of $170.46 and a twelve month high of $243.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The company has a market capitalization of $99.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $192.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $205.61.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.29 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $1.70 dividend. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is 141.37%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,924,091,000 after purchasing an additional 635,726 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 19,176,365 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,516,890,000 after purchasing an additional 3,437,602 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,342,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,074,956,000 after purchasing an additional 129,192 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,179,269 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,050,390,000 after purchasing an additional 537,136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 66.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,563,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,570,547,000 after purchasing an additional 3,421,413 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

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.