American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Sold by NFJ Investment Group LLC

NFJ Investment Group LLC lowered its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 94,628 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,952 shares during the quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $17,356,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in American Tower in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Graney & King LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust acquired a new position in American Tower during the fourth quarter worth $46,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in American Tower by 113.9% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 261 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AMT. Barclays upped their price target on shares of American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. JMP Securities started coverage on shares of American Tower in a report on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $210.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on American Tower in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $250.00 target price on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $232.07.

American Tower Stock Up 0.0 %

AMT stock opened at $217.86 on Wednesday. American Tower Co. has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $101.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 91.92, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $206.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $202.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.12%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is 141.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.