Stokes Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Stokes Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,886 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 832 shares during the quarter. Stokes Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $3,647,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,924,091,000 after acquiring an additional 635,726 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in American Tower by 1.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,213,613 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,599,074,000 after purchasing an additional 204,426 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 25.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,642,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,474,934,000 after buying an additional 2,152,646 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of American Tower by 41.8% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,395,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,333,000 after buying an additional 1,885,421 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in American Tower by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,208,967 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,211,397,000 after acquiring an additional 243,061 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AMT. 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 research note on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Scotiabank decreased their price target 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. Wells Fargo & Company lowered American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, StockNews.com cut American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.67.

Insider Transactions at American Tower

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were 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 trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE AMT opened at $190.51 on Monday. American Tower Co. has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56. The firm has a market cap of $89.02 billion, a PE ratio of 80.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $192.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $211.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69.

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

American Tower Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.40%. American Tower’s payout ratio is currently 273.42%.

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.