Atlas Brown Inc. Acquires 75 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Atlas Brown Inc. raised its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 7.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,106 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the quarter. Atlas Brown Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $203,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in American Tower by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,564 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,588,000 after purchasing an additional 2,452 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA lifted its position in American Tower by 50.8% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA now owns 35,044 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,427,000 after acquiring an additional 11,799 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in American Tower by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 702 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $129,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC increased its position in shares of American Tower by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 431,261 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $79,098,000 after purchasing an additional 21,084 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. increased its position in shares of American Tower by 37.1% during the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 3,339 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $612,000 after purchasing an additional 904 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Scotiabank dropped their target price on American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. 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 research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $233.67.

American Tower Price Performance

NYSE:AMT traded down $5.23 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $173.96. 2,660,633 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,296,521. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The firm has a market cap of $81.29 billion, a PE ratio of 73.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a twelve month low of $170.46 and a twelve month high of $243.56. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $195.74 and its 200-day moving average is $211.81.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.45 by ($1.56). American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 273.42%.

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.