Victory Capital Management Inc. Purchases 6,453 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 173,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,453 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $31,740,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMT. FMR LLC grew its holdings in American Tower by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,642,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,474,934,000 after purchasing an additional 2,152,646 shares during the last quarter. Adelante Capital Management LLC boosted its position in American Tower by 2,723.4% in the 3rd quarter. Adelante Capital Management LLC now owns 1,203,517 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $279,890,000 after buying an additional 1,160,890 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in American Tower by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,173,423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,924,091,000 after buying an additional 635,726 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its position in American Tower by 270.4% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 466,772 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $108,553,000 after buying an additional 340,742 shares during the period. Finally, Brookfield Corp ON boosted its position in American Tower by 88.3% in the 3rd quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 710,725 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $165,286,000 after buying an additional 333,209 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on AMT. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Tower

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

American Tower Trading Up 2.7 %

NYSE:AMT opened at $212.49 on Monday. American Tower Co. has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week high of $243.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $189.60 and a 200 day moving average of $206.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $99.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.66, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.29 earnings per share. American Tower’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 business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.20%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 134.72%.

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.