American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Sold by Clearbridge Investments LLC

Clearbridge Investments LLC lowered its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,476,429 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 303,558 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned 0.74% of American Tower worth $637,612,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 49.3% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 227 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in American Tower in the third quarter valued at $1,843,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 33.1% during the third quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 2,547 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $592,000 after purchasing an additional 633 shares during the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of American Tower by 11.7% during the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,165 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $736,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of American Tower by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 71,248 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $16,569,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:AMT opened at $215.52 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.94, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $198.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $204.58. 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 (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a $1.70 dividend. This is an increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.16%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 141.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup lifted their price target on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $229.43.

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.