Verition Fund Management LLC Has $4.75 Million Stock Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Verition Fund Management LLC grew its holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 6.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 20,402 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 1,245 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $4,745,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AMT. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in American Tower by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $893,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Csenge Advisory Group lifted its holdings in American Tower by 12.6% during the 2nd quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 6,195 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after purchasing an additional 692 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional lifted its holdings in American Tower by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $365,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in American Tower by 11.4% during the 2nd quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. now owns 15,830 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,077,000 after purchasing an additional 1,622 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in American Tower during the 2nd quarter valued at about $9,796,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho boosted their target price 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of American Tower from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price 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, StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.54.

American Tower Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE AMT opened at $207.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $97.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $214.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $212.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. American Tower Co. has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. Analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.08 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were issued a $1.62 dividend. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.12%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 9th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 273.42%.

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.