American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Barclays Analyst Says

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) had its target price boosted by Barclays from $214.00 to $223.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 2.46% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on AMT. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Citizens Jmp upgraded American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Three research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $229.43.

American Tower Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE AMT traded up $3.38 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $217.65. 2,163,273 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,473,292. The stock has a market cap of $101.74 billion, a PE ratio of 91.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. American Tower has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week high of $243.56. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $195.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $205.66. 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 released its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.29 EPS. Analysts forecast that American Tower will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of American Tower stock in a transaction dated 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 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in American Tower by 3.1% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its stake in American Tower by 21.8% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 19,176,365 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,516,890,000 after purchasing an additional 3,437,602 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,342,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,074,956,000 after buying an additional 129,192 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,179,269 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,050,390,000 after purchasing an additional 537,136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of American Tower by 66.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,563,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,570,547,000 after acquiring an additional 3,421,413 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.