GLOBALT Investments LLC GA Has $1.21 Million Stock Position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

GLOBALT Investments LLC GA decreased its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 67.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,606 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 13,486 shares during the quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA’s holdings in American Tower were worth $1,212,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of American Tower by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,924,091,000 after purchasing an additional 635,726 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of American Tower by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,213,613 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,599,074,000 after purchasing an additional 204,426 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Tower by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,642,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,474,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,152,646 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of American Tower by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,316,312 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $975,065,000 after acquiring an additional 107,345 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of American Tower by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,422,273 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $981,455,000 after acquiring an additional 38,436 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. 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. Citizens Jmp upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Barclays reduced their price target on American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $228.79.

American Tower Price Performance

American Tower stock opened at $213.17 on Tuesday. American Tower Co. has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week high of $243.56. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $192.99 and a 200-day moving average of $205.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $99.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its 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 business had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.29 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $1.70 dividend. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 141.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.