American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Raises Dividend to $1.70 Per Share

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 6th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of 1.70 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, April 28th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This is a 4.9% increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62.

American Tower has increased its dividend by an average of 7.5% annually over the last three years. American Tower has a payout ratio of 92.2% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Analysts expect American Tower to earn $10.00 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 64.8%.

American Tower Stock Performance

NYSE:AMT opened at $212.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $189.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $206.40. American Tower has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. The company has a market capitalization of $99.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released 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 return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of American Tower stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Tower

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in American Tower stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 113.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,104 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $727,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho decreased their target price on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank reduced 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. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on American Tower from $215.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, American Tower currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $225.21.

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.