First Manhattan CO. LLC. Boosts Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. boosted its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 210,268 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,524 shares during the period. First Manhattan CO. LLC.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $41,875,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of AMT. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Tower by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 19,176,365 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,516,890,000 after purchasing an additional 3,437,602 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,342,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,074,956,000 after acquiring an additional 129,192 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in American Tower by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,179,269 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,050,390,000 after purchasing an additional 537,136 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of American Tower by 66.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,563,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,570,547,000 after purchasing an additional 3,421,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,164,851,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on AMT shares. Barclays upped their target price on American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank raised their target price on American Tower from $234.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of American Tower from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. JMP Securities raised their target price on American Tower from $248.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $239.27.

American Tower Stock Down 0.8 %

AMT stock opened at $217.76 on Friday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $214.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $202.11. American Tower Co. has a 1-year low of $172.51 and a 1-year high of $243.56. The firm has a market cap of $101.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.88, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.86.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $2.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.54 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 down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.79 EPS. Research analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th were given a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 11th. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.12%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 174.81%.

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.