Ballast Advisors LLC Invests $229,000 in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Ballast Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 983 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 41.8% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,395,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,333,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885,421 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 23,224.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 997,337 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $231,941,000 after purchasing an additional 993,061 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in American Tower by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,991,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,248,812,000 after buying an additional 965,938 shares during the period. M&G Plc bought a new stake in American Tower in the first quarter worth about $164,300,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in American Tower by 22,242.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 778,865 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,811,330,000 after acquiring an additional 775,379 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Scotiabank decreased their target price on 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of American Tower from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $223.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Tower currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.85.

American Tower Price Performance

American Tower stock traded down $12.45 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $201.40. 278,384 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,260,986. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $227.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $209.79. The stock has a market cap of $94.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56. 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, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were given a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 9th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is 273.42%.

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.