4,700 Shares in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Purchased by Board of the Pension Protection Fund

Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 4,700 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $862,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Balentine LLC purchased a new stake in American Tower in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in American Tower by 28.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $260,743,000 after buying an additional 314,769 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in American Tower in the third quarter valued at $1,156,000. Czech National Bank raised its position in shares of American Tower by 6.9% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 95,149 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $22,128,000 after acquiring an additional 6,163 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its position in shares of American Tower by 46.8% during the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 25,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,980,000 after acquiring an additional 8,195 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AMT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets cut 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. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $230.67.

American Tower Price Performance

AMT stock opened at $178.99 on Wednesday. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $83.64 billion, a PE ratio of 75.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $193.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $211.68.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The firm’s revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. Equities research 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.62%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 273.42%.

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.