American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Purchased by Gateway Investment Advisers LLC

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 39,241 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $7,197,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in American Tower by 3.1% in the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 635,726 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 1.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,213,613 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,599,074,000 after buying an additional 204,426 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 25.4% during 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 during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 41.8% during 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 buying an additional 1,885,421 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in American Tower by 4.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,208,967 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,211,397,000 after acquiring an additional 243,061 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on AMT. Mizuho reduced their price target on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $230.67.

American Tower Price Performance

AMT opened at $190.26 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $193.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $211.46. American Tower Co. has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The company has a market cap of $88.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.84.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 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 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.41%. American Tower’s payout ratio is currently 273.42%.

About American Tower

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.