Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 9.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 186,656 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 15,791 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $43,409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,991,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,248,812,000 after purchasing an additional 965,938 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in American Tower by 41.8% during the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in American Tower by 8.9% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,705,145 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $720,206,000 after buying an additional 302,676 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in American Tower by 16.3% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,310,893 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $643,571,000 after buying an additional 464,429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its holdings in American Tower by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 1,630,644 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $315,868,000 after buying an additional 6,193 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on American Tower from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of American Tower from $226.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Mizuho lifted their price target on American Tower from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Wells Fargo & Company cut American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on American Tower from $225.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Four 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.85.

American Tower Trading Down 1.1 %

American Tower stock opened at $211.26 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $98.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $228.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $208.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.69.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were paid a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 9th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.