American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Purchased by O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 30.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 65,047 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,064 shares during the quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $11,930,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bcwm LLC acquired a new position in American Tower in the fourth quarter worth about $3,350,000. United Bank increased its holdings in shares of American Tower by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. United Bank now owns 5,223 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $958,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in shares of American Tower by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,631,644 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $299,260,000 after acquiring an additional 65,641 shares in the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in American Tower during the fourth quarter worth $312,000. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in American Tower by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 474,325 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $86,289,000 after purchasing an additional 66,990 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

American Tower Stock Up 1.0 %

AMT opened at $217.78 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $199.44 and its 200-day moving average is $204.20. American Tower Co. has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56. The company has a market capitalization of $101.80 billion, a PE ratio of 91.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.29 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS 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 issued a $1.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.12%. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 141.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $210.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup increased their target price 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 boosted their price target on shares of American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, JMP Securities began coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price target for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, American Tower presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $229.43.

Insider Activity

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 transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.