Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. Has $6.62 Million Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 36,065 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 435 shares during the quarter. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $6,615,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower during the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Activest Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 431.0% during the third quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 154 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 51.0% during the third quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC now owns 222 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 49.3% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 227 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered 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. 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. Citizens Jmp raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank lowered 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. Finally, Barclays lowered 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $228.79.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’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. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

American Tower Price Performance

NYSE AMT opened at $213.83 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $194.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $205.60. The company has a market cap of $99.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. American Tower’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.29 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is an increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 141.37%.

American Tower Company 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.