Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Grows Stock Position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 33.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 67,531 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,739 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $12,386,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AMT. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Tower by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,642,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,474,934,000 after buying an additional 2,152,646 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of American Tower by 41.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,395,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,333,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885,421 shares in the last quarter. Adelante Capital Management LLC increased its stake in American Tower by 2,723.4% during the third quarter. Adelante Capital Management LLC now owns 1,203,517 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $279,890,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160,890 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in American Tower by 23,224.1% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 997,337 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $231,941,000 after acquiring an additional 993,061 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 22,242.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 778,865 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,811,330,000 after purchasing an additional 775,379 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Tower

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the business’s 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 in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT opened at $190.51 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $193.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $211.32. The stock has a market cap of $89.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.39, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.84. 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 Co. has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. American Tower’s payout ratio is presently 273.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AMT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Tower presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.67.

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.