American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Purchased by Hills Bank & Trust Co

Hills Bank & Trust Co grew its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 22,979 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 459 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in American Tower were worth $4,215,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its holdings in American Tower by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,426 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $332,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of American Tower by 4.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $206,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Calamos Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in American Tower by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,172 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $398,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sunburst Financial Group LLC increased its stake in American Tower by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 1,354 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $248,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. JMP Securities initiated coverage on American Tower in a research note on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on American Tower from $215.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.29.

American Tower Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AMT opened at $211.02 on Friday. American Tower Co. has a 1-year low of $170.46 and a 1-year high of $243.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $98.64 billion, a PE ratio of 89.04, a P/E/G 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. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $192.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $205.96.

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

American Tower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. This is an increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s payout ratio is presently 141.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of American Tower 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.