American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Sold by Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. reduced its position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,512 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 141 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $817,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,991,053 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,248,812,000 after purchasing an additional 965,938 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 41.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,395,906 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,333,000 after buying an additional 1,885,421 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,705,145 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $720,206,000 after buying an additional 302,676 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,310,893 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $643,571,000 after buying an additional 464,429 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 1,630,644 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $315,868,000 after buying an additional 6,193 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Mizuho raised their target price on American Tower from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on American Tower from $248.00 to $236.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on American Tower from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on American Tower from $225.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on American Tower from $223.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.85.

American Tower Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of AMT stock opened at $194.91 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $224.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $210.55. American Tower Co. has a fifty-two week low of $170.46 and a fifty-two week high of $243.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.45 by ($1.56). American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 9th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is 273.42%.

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.