American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Announces Dividend Increase – $1.70 Per Share

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 6th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of 1.70 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, April 28th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%. This is a 4.9% increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62.

American Tower has a dividend payout ratio of 90.1% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Research analysts expect American Tower to earn $10.00 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.8%.

American Tower Price Performance

Shares of American Tower stock opened at $206.89 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $188.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $206.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. American Tower has a 12 month low of $170.46 and a 12 month high of $243.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.68 billion, a PE ratio of 87.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released 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 return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The company 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 posted $2.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Tower

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in American Tower stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 113.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,104 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $727,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on 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. JMP Securities initiated coverage on American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Barclays decreased their price objective on American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.21.

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.