River Road Asset Management LLC Buys 5,787 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 93,147 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,787 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $21,662,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of American Tower by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,991,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,248,812,000 after buying an additional 965,938 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in American Tower by 41.8% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,395,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,333,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885,421 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in American Tower by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,705,145 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $720,206,000 after acquiring an additional 302,676 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of American Tower by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,310,893 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $643,571,000 after acquiring an additional 464,429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 1,630,644 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $315,868,000 after purchasing an additional 6,193 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on AMT shares. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $226.00 to $239.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of American Tower from $223.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. BMO Capital Markets decreased 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. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on American Tower from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.85.

American Tower Price Performance

AMT opened at $211.31 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $227.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $209.49. American Tower Co. has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.70 billion, a PE ratio of 89.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.84. 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 posted its earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The firm’s revenue was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.08 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were issued a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 9th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.