United Bank Increases Stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

United Bank grew its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,223 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 391 shares during the quarter. United Bank’s holdings in American Tower were worth $958,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in American Tower by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,631,644 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $299,260,000 after acquiring an additional 65,641 shares during the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter worth about $312,000. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in shares of American Tower by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 474,325 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $86,289,000 after purchasing an additional 66,990 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in American Tower by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,515,588 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $277,974,000 after purchasing an additional 160,519 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz SE purchased a new stake in American Tower in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,494,000. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $210.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $229.43.

American Tower Stock Performance

AMT stock opened at $215.52 on Friday. American Tower Co. has a 12-month low of $170.46 and a 12-month high of $243.56. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $198.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $204.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.74 billion, a PE ratio of 90.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.16%. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s payout ratio is presently 141.37%.

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.