Insider Selling: American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) EVP Sells 10,005 Shares of Stock

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) EVP Olivier Puech sold 10,005 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.27, for a total transaction of $2,333,866.35. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 51,746 shares in the company, valued at $12,070,789.42. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

American Tower Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:AMT opened at $223.58 on Friday. American Tower Co. has a twelve month low of $154.58 and a twelve month high of $236.13. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42. The firm has a market cap of $104.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a 50 day moving average of $204.16 and a 200-day moving average of $194.87.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by ($0.52). The firm had revenue of $2.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 23.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.46 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. American Tower’s payout ratio is 146.61%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Tower

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in American Tower by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,991,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,248,812,000 after buying an additional 965,938 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 16,440,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,549,366,000 after purchasing an additional 583,892 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 21.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,823,622 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,416,004,000 after purchasing an additional 2,839,570 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in American Tower by 36.2% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,794,776 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,737,760,000 after purchasing an additional 2,336,501 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Akre Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in American Tower by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC now owns 6,804,599 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,468,977,000 after buying an additional 36,375 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMT has been the topic of several research reports. Raymond James upgraded shares of American Tower from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $226.00 to $248.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on American Tower in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $230.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $246.00 price objective (up from $225.00) on shares of American Tower in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on American Tower from $183.00 to $196.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of American Tower from $234.00 to $223.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Tower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $230.42.

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.