Nicola Wealth Management LTD. Raises Stock Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Nicola Wealth Management LTD. lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 20.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,281 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares during the period. Nicola Wealth Management LTD.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $1,926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 9.5% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 13,188 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,067,000 after acquiring an additional 1,142 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its position in American Tower by 3.6% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 24,934 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,799,000 after purchasing an additional 864 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A. increased its position in American Tower by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 1,743 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $405,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 270.4% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 466,772 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $108,553,000 after buying an additional 340,742 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 12,225 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,840,000 after buying an additional 1,152 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AMT. Barclays upped their price objective on American Tower from $223.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on American Tower from $225.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com downgraded American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on American Tower from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.85.

American Tower Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:AMT traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $195.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 340,866 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,312,840. The firm has a market cap of $91.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 82.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $224.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.55. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. 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 (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company’s revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. Research analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.08 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 9th were given a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 9th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 273.42%.

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.