American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Short Interest Up 15.6% in June

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,560,000 shares, a growth of 15.6% from the May 31st total of 4,810,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,500,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robert D. Hormats sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.50, for a total transaction of $128,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,345,422. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other American Tower news, EVP Sanjay Goel sold 3,504 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.36, for a total transaction of $702,061.44. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 28,413 shares in the company, valued at $5,692,828.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Robert D. Hormats sold 700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.50, for a total transaction of $128,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,345,422. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Tower

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Alera Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in American Tower by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Alera Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,105 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $886,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Allstate Corp lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 1,750 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $378,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Augustine Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,092 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,531,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 13.9% during the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 459 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $99,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Finally, Glassman Wealth Services lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Glassman Wealth Services now owns 1,242 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $268,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on AMT. Raymond James raised shares of American Tower from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $226.00 to $248.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $243.00 to $223.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $228.00 to $220.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $183.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Monday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $230.00 target price for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $221.67.

American Tower Price Performance

NYSE AMT opened at $192.27 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $188.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $194.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.39, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. American Tower has a 52-week low of $154.58 and a 52-week high of $219.10.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.43 by ($0.47). American Tower had a net margin of 18.42% and a return on equity of 18.45%. The company had revenue of $2.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.79 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.54 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that American Tower will post 10.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.37%. American Tower’s payout ratio is 146.61%.

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.