Jones Financial Companies Lllp Acquires 22,260 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 18.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 144,481 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,260 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in American Tower were worth $26,499,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Financial Advocates Investment Management lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 4.0% in the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 1,687 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $392,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new position in American Tower during the third quarter worth $224,000. Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its holdings in American Tower by 50.1% during the 3rd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 3,172 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $738,000 after purchasing an additional 1,059 shares during the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 621.9% in the third quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 462 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Optas LLC boosted its stake in American Tower by 12.2% in the third quarter. Optas LLC now owns 2,293 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $533,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Trading Up 0.8 %

American Tower stock opened at $205.61 on Monday. 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 50-day simple moving average of $187.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $206.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 86.76, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter last year, the company posted $2.29 EPS. American Tower’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were given a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.15%. American Tower’s payout ratio is presently 134.72%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AMT. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Citizens Jmp raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $225.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.