Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Stock Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 17.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,346,085 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 895,244 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in American Tower were worth $797,115,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMT. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of American Tower during the 3rd quarter worth $110,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in American Tower by 29.8% during the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 22,055 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,129,000 after buying an additional 5,064 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC acquired a new position in American Tower during the third quarter worth about $1,287,000. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in American Tower by 73.1% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 305,708 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $71,095,000 after buying an additional 129,070 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on AMT shares. Barclays raised their price objective on American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho cut their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Citizens Jmp raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $232.07.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

American Tower Price Performance

American Tower stock opened at $220.43 on Monday. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $202.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $203.72. The company has a market cap of $103.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 93.01, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced 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. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.29 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s payout ratio is presently 141.37%.

American Tower 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.