American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Plans $1.62 Quarterly Dividend

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of 1.62 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%.

American Tower has increased its dividend by an average of 12.5% per year over the last three years. American Tower has a payout ratio of 96.4% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Research analysts expect American Tower to earn $10.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.3%.

American Tower Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AMT traded up $1.66 during trading on Thursday, reaching $209.16. The company had a trading volume of 2,187,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,319,916. The company has a fifty day moving average of $214.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $212.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.83. American Tower has a 12 month low of $170.46 and a 12 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.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. American Tower’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that American Tower will post 10.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on AMT. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of American Tower from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $245.00 to $230.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of American Tower from $225.00 to $236.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $251.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.54.

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.