Strategic Blueprint LLC Lowers Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Strategic Blueprint LLC cut its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 11.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 441 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $604,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Balentine LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Tower in the third quarter valued at about $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of American Tower by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $260,743,000 after purchasing an additional 314,769 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of American Tower during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,156,000. Czech National Bank increased its holdings in American Tower by 6.9% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 95,149 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $22,128,000 after buying an additional 6,163 shares during the period. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management raised its stake in American Tower by 29.0% in the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,629,000 after buying an additional 1,995 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on AMT shares. Scotiabank dropped their target price on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Tower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $226.23.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT stock opened at $184.91 on Friday. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $190.97 and a 200 day moving average of $210.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. American Tower’s payout ratio is 273.42%.

Insider Transactions at American Tower

In related 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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.