Simmons Bank Cuts Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Simmons Bank reduced its position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,638 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,408 shares during the quarter. Simmons Bank’s holdings in American Tower were worth $2,685,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Balentine LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Tower in the 3rd quarter worth $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised 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 buying an additional 314,769 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of American Tower in the 3rd quarter worth $1,156,000. TigerOak Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in shares of American Tower in the 4th quarter worth $1,102,000. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management raised its position in shares of American Tower by 29.0% in the 4th 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 during the period. 92.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Barclays cut their price objective on American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Mizuho cut their price objective on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com lowered American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.21.

American Tower Stock Down 1.5 %

NYSE:AMT opened at $200.75 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $93.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 84.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $186.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $206.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.29 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 273.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

American Tower 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.