American Tower Co. (AMT) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 27th

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of 1.62 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th.

American Tower has increased its dividend payment by an average of 12.5% annually over the last three years. American Tower has a payout ratio of 96.6% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Equities research analysts expect American Tower to earn $10.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.3%.

American Tower Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of American Tower stock opened at $184.71 on Wednesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $86.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.83. American Tower has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $205.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $213.13.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released 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 net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The business had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that American Tower will post 10.08 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Four equities research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.08.

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.