Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Sells 6,601 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 142,307 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,601 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $26,101,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its stake in American Tower by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,924,091,000 after buying an additional 635,726 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in American Tower by 1.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,213,613 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,599,074,000 after buying an additional 204,426 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in American Tower by 25.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,642,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,474,934,000 after buying an additional 2,152,646 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Tower by 2.1% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 107,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Tower by 0.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,422,273 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $981,455,000 after purchasing an additional 38,436 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMT has been the topic of a number of research reports. JMP Securities initiated coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of 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. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Tower has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.29.

American Tower Trading Up 1.6 %

AMT stock opened at $211.02 on Friday. 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $192.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $205.82. American Tower Co. has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week high of $243.56. The company has a market capitalization of $98.64 billion, a PE ratio of 89.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.29 earnings per share. American Tower’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current 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 dividend of $1.70 per share. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.22%. This is an increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. 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 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. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Company 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.