American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Hsbc Global Res

Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of American Tower (NYSE:AMT) to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on AMT. Citizens Jmp raised American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $225.21.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT stock opened at $205.61 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $96.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 86.76, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower has a fifty-two week low of $170.46 and a fifty-two week high of $243.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $187.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $206.81.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.29 EPS. Analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th were paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. American Tower’s payout ratio is currently 273.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMT. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of American Tower by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,924,091,000 after acquiring an additional 635,726 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its stake in American Tower by 21.8% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 19,176,365 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,516,890,000 after purchasing an additional 3,437,602 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in American Tower by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,342,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,074,956,000 after purchasing an additional 129,192 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in American Tower by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,179,269 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,050,390,000 after purchasing an additional 537,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in American Tower by 66.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,563,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,570,547,000 after buying an additional 3,421,413 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% 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.