Swedbank AB Buys 4,627 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 602,841 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,627 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB owned 0.13% of American Tower worth $140,197,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 41.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,395,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,333,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885,421 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,208,967 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,211,397,000 after acquiring an additional 243,061 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,705,145 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $720,206,000 after acquiring an additional 302,676 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,537,892 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $822,772,000 after acquiring an additional 226,999 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,536,255 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $298,617,000 after acquiring an additional 69,300 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Trading Up 0.7 %

AMT opened at $204.31 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 company has a market cap of $95.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 86.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $218.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $211.63. American Tower Co. has a fifty-two week low of $170.46 and a fifty-two week high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.08 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 9th were paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 9th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 273.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on AMT shares. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $251.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of American Tower from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. StockNews.com lowered shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.54.

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.