Citigroup Increases American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Price Target to $235.00

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) had its price objective lifted by Citigroup from $220.00 to $235.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on AMT. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, American Tower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.29.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT stock opened at $206.67 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $96.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.20, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50 day moving average is $191.23 and its 200 day moving average is $206.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. American Tower has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. American Tower’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is an increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. American Tower’s payout ratio is presently 141.37%.

Insider Transactions at American Tower

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in 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 period. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its position in 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of American Tower by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,342,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,074,956,000 after acquiring an additional 129,192 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of American Tower by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,179,269 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,050,390,000 after acquiring an additional 537,136 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of American Tower by 66.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,563,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,570,547,000 after acquiring an additional 3,421,413 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.