American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Sold by Alliancebernstein L.P.

Alliancebernstein L.P. trimmed its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 24.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,197,552 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 695,624 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $403,053,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in American Tower in the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Graney & King LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in American Tower during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in American Tower in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC grew its position in 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 valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

American Tower Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of American Tower stock opened at $217.78 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $199.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $204.20. American Tower Co. has a 12-month low of $170.46 and a 12-month high of $243.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The stock has a market cap of $101.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.89, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.29 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.12%. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s payout ratio is currently 141.37%.

Insider Transactions at American Tower

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on AMT shares. Citizens Jmp raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $210.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays lifted their target price on American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $229.43.

American Tower 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.