Blair William & Co. IL Decreases Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 790,497 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 5,508 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in American Tower were worth $144,985,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Graney & King LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of American Tower in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of American Tower in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of American Tower by 51.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC now owns 222 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Price Performance

AMT stock opened at $209.91 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $197.91 and a 200 day moving average of $204.94. 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 $98.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 88.57, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a $1.70 dividend. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s payout ratio is currently 141.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AMT. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. JMP Securities began coverage on American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price objective on the stock. Citizens Jmp upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $229.43.

Insider Activity at American Tower

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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, 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.