American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Sold by Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 76.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,444 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 14,722 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $815,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AMT. State Street Corp increased its stake in American Tower by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,924,091,000 after acquiring an additional 635,726 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,213,613 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,599,074,000 after acquiring an additional 204,426 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,642,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,474,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,152,646 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,316,312 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $975,065,000 after acquiring an additional 107,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,422,273 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $981,455,000 after acquiring an additional 38,436 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMT has been the subject of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $210.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, March 17th. JMP Securities initiated coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $229.43.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of American Tower stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of American Tower stock opened at $216.41 on Friday. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $195.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $205.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $101.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.31, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. American Tower Co. has a twelve month low of $170.46 and a twelve month high of $243.56.

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

American Tower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s payout ratio is 141.37%.

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.