American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Purchased by PDS Planning Inc

PDS Planning Inc grew its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 10.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,602 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the quarter. PDS Planning Inc’s holdings in American Tower were worth $477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in American Tower by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,642,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,474,934,000 after buying an additional 2,152,646 shares during the period. 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 worth $279,890,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160,890 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in American Tower in the 4th quarter worth approximately $193,246,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in American Tower by 456.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, 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 worth $4,924,091,000 after purchasing an additional 635,726 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup upped their price objective on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Citizens Jmp upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $210.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, American Tower has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $228.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

American Tower Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:AMT opened at $214.82 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $100.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.64, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $193.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $205.54. American Tower Co. has a 12-month low of $170.46 and a 12-month high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its 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. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.29 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This is an increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. American Tower’s payout ratio is 141.37%.

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.