Dana Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires 563 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Dana Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,698 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 563 shares during the period. Dana Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $2,146,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its position in American Tower by 4.2% in the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,426 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $332,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in American Tower by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $235,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in American Tower by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,113 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $206,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC increased its position in American Tower by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,172 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $398,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sunburst Financial Group LLC increased its position in American Tower by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 1,354 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $248,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on AMT. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of 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. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Tower currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

American Tower Stock Up 2.7 %

NYSE:AMT opened at $212.49 on Friday. American Tower Co. has a 1-year low of $170.46 and a 1-year high of $243.56. The company has a 50-day moving average of $189.60 and a 200 day moving average of $206.40. The firm has a market cap of $99.29 billion, a PE ratio of 89.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. 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 (NYSE:AMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.29 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.20%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is 134.72%.

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.