Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 26.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,015 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $920,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. World Investment Advisors increased its holdings in American Tower by 42.7% during the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 5,773 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,059,000 after purchasing an additional 1,728 shares during the last quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower in the 4th quarter valued at about $421,000. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Tower by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 6,622 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its stake in American Tower by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 3,188 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $585,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 valued at $2,074,956,000 after buying an additional 129,192 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMT has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their target price 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Tower presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $232.07.

American Tower Trading Down 3.4 %

Shares of AMT stock opened at $220.43 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $103.04 billion, a PE ratio of 93.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $202.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $204.19.

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

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.08%. 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 firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% 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.