Sarasin & Partners LLP Buys 37,692 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Sarasin & Partners LLP grew its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 936,011 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 37,692 shares during the period. American Tower makes up 1.9% of Sarasin & Partners LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Sarasin & Partners LLP owned approximately 0.20% of American Tower worth $171,674,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Balentine LLC bought a new stake in American Tower during the third quarter worth about $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in American Tower by 28.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $260,743,000 after acquiring an additional 314,769 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in American Tower during the third quarter worth about $1,156,000. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in American Tower by 6.9% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 95,149 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $22,128,000 after acquiring an additional 6,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management boosted its stake in American Tower by 29.0% during the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,629,000 after acquiring an additional 1,995 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Tower

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

American Tower Stock Up 0.2 %

AMT opened at $190.51 on Monday. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of $192.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $211.42. American Tower Co. has a twelve month low of $170.46 and a twelve month high of $243.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $89.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.39, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.84.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced 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). American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.40%. American Tower’s dividend 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.