American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Sold by Natixis Advisors LLC

Natixis Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 12.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 156,539 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 21,408 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $28,711,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AMT. FMR LLC grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 2,152,646 shares during the period. Adelante Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in American Tower by 2,723.4% during the third quarter. Adelante Capital Management LLC now owns 1,203,517 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $279,890,000 after acquiring an additional 1,160,890 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in American Tower during the fourth quarter worth about $193,246,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in American Tower by 456.9% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 1,124,633 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $206,269,000 after acquiring an additional 922,701 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in American Tower by 3.1% during the third 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 period. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AMT. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, American Tower currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $228.79.

American Tower Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE AMT opened at $213.17 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $99.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.95, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $192.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $205.61. American Tower Co. has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week 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.

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

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business 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 $1.70 dividend. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. American Tower’s payout ratio is 141.37%.

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.