Donoghue Forlines LLC Acquires Shares of 8,061 American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Donoghue Forlines LLC bought a new position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 8,061 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,478,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Balentine LLC bought a new position in shares of American Tower in the third quarter valued at approximately $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of American Tower by 28.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 314,769 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in American Tower during the third quarter worth about $1,156,000. Czech National Bank grew its position in American Tower by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 95,149 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $22,128,000 after purchasing an additional 6,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,995 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays decreased their price target on American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Tower has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $230.67.

Insider Activity

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

American Tower Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE AMT opened at $184.73 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The company has a market cap of $86.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week high of $243.56. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $211.29.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.45 by ($1.56). The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.51%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 273.42%.

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.