Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Increases Stock Position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 38.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 965 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich’s holdings in American Tower were worth $195,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AMT. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 28.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $260,743,000 after buying an additional 314,769 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in American Tower during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,156,000. TigerOak Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in American Tower during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,102,000. Brookstone Capital Management grew its stake in shares of American Tower by 29.0% in the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,629,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CCLA Investment Management increased its holdings in shares of American Tower by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 432,891 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $79,344,000 after purchasing an additional 22,523 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

American Tower Price Performance

AMT stock opened at $213.42 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $99.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. American Tower Co. has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $190.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $206.16.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.29 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is 141.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AMT. Hsbc Global Res raised American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, JMP Securities started coverage on American Tower in a research note on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 target price for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $226.29.

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.