Brokerages Set American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Target Price at $235.21

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $235.21.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $246.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $225.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th.

American Tower Price Performance

AMT opened at $229.51 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42. American Tower has a 12 month low of $157.25 and a 12 month high of $243.56. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $228.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $205.91. The stock has a market cap of $107.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.83.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by ($0.52). The company had revenue of $2.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 23.06% and a net margin of 21.95%. American Tower’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.46 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.13 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th will be issued a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 9th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 146.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Tower

In other news, EVP Olivier Puech sold 10,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.27, for a total transaction of $2,333,866.35. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 51,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,070,789.42. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Olivier Puech sold 10,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.27, for a total transaction of $2,333,866.35. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 51,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,070,789.42. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Robert Joseph Meyer, Jr. sold 2,181 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.93, for a total transaction of $508,020.33. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 31,873 shares in the company, valued at $7,424,177.89. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,723 shares of company stock valued at $7,795,397 in the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMT. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Tower during the first quarter worth $25,000. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Tower during the second quarter worth $27,000. Cultivar Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of American Tower during the second quarter worth $25,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Tower during the second quarter worth $29,000. Finally, SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. acquired a new position in shares of American Tower during the first quarter worth $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

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.