Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Acquires 160,519 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 11.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,515,588 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 160,519 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in American Tower were worth $277,974,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in American Tower by 49.3% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 227 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,843,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in American Tower by 33.1% during the 3rd quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 2,547 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $592,000 after purchasing an additional 633 shares during the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in American Tower by 11.7% in the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,165 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $736,000 after buying an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in American Tower by 0.3% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 71,248 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,569,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citizens Jmp raised American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Barclays boosted their price objective on American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JMP Securities assumed coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $229.43.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of American Tower stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of American Tower stock opened at $215.52 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $198.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $204.58. 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 market capitalization of $100.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.94, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. American Tower Co. has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.29 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.16%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.