American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) CFO Sells $3,000,283.70 in Stock

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 the SEC website.

American Tower Price Performance

Shares of AMT traded up $0.44 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $190.51. The company had a trading volume of 2,882,286 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,554,349. The company has a market capitalization of $89.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.39, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a 12-month low of $170.46 and a 12-month high of $243.56. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $193.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $211.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. American Tower’s revenue was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 273.42%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Tower

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cetera Trust Company N.A raised its position in American Tower by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Trust Company N.A now owns 1,340 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $246,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp raised its position in shares of American Tower by 26.0% during the 4th quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 6,164 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,131,000 after purchasing an additional 1,273 shares during the last quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in American Tower by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC now owns 41,379 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,589,000 after buying an additional 2,424 shares in the last quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co increased its position in American Tower by 16.0% during the fourth quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 9,237 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,694,000 after buying an additional 1,275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commons Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Commons Capital LLC now owns 5,349 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $981,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMT has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Mizuho dropped their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Scotiabank decreased their price target on American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $230.67.

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.