American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Short Interest Down 14.7% in July

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,090,000 shares, a drop of 14.7% from the July 15th total of 5,970,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,220,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AMT. Raymond James upgraded shares of American Tower from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $226.00 to $248.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of American Tower from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of American Tower from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $223.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of American Tower from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $231.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Sanjay Goel sold 3,504 shares of the firm’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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, EVP Sanjay Goel sold 3,504 shares of the firm’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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Olivier Puech sold 10,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.27, for a total transaction of $2,333,866.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 51,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,070,789.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 37,227 shares of company stock worth $8,497,458. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in American Tower in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Cultivar Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of American Tower during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Tower during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Gold Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Tower during the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE AMT traded up $1.79 during trading on Friday, reaching $219.85. 1,986,252 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,370,238. The firm has a market cap of $102.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.81. American Tower has a fifty-two week low of $154.58 and a fifty-two week high of $236.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $207.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $195.78.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by ($0.52). The business had revenue of $2.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 23.06% and a net margin of 21.95%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.46 EPS. Analysts predict that American Tower will post 10.04 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. American Tower’s payout ratio is currently 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.