American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Sold by Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA reduced its holdings in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,394,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 142,926 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in American Tower were worth $622,671,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in American Tower during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Tower in the third quarter worth $34,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Bank of Jackson Hole Trust purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on AMT shares. Scotiabank reduced their target price on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $210.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, JMP Securities started coverage on shares of American Tower in a research note on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $232.07.

American Tower Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of AMT stock opened at $217.71 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $200.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $204.16. American Tower Co. has a 1-year low of $170.46 and a 1-year high of $243.56. The company has a market cap of $101.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.86, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.12%. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 141.37%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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.