Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Purchases 251 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. boosted its position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,622 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $1,215,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,164,851,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 4th quarter valued at $193,246,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 456.9% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 1,124,633 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $206,269,000 after purchasing an additional 922,701 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,164,905 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $947,295,000 after buying an additional 742,632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 635,726 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Mizuho lowered their target price 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $210.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. JMP Securities started coverage on American Tower in a report on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $232.07.

American Tower Price Performance

NYSE:AMT opened at $217.71 on Thursday. American Tower Co. has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $200.67 and a 200 day moving average of $204.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $101.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

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

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.12%. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 141.37%.

Insider Transactions at American Tower

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.