Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. Sells 217 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 15.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,189 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 217 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $218,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AMT. Partners Group Holding AG boosted its position in American Tower by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 378,592 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $69,438,000 after buying an additional 28,988 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in American Tower by 28.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $260,743,000 after acquiring an additional 314,769 shares during the last quarter. TigerOak Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in American Tower in the fourth quarter worth about $1,102,000. Brookstone Capital Management raised its holdings in American Tower by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,629,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CCLA Investment Management lifted its position in American Tower by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 432,891 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $79,344,000 after purchasing an additional 22,523 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JMP Securities began coverage on shares of American Tower in a research note on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded American Tower from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $210.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup raised their target price on American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Scotiabank cut 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Tower has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $232.07.

American Tower Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:AMT opened at $213.25 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $99.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.98, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. American Tower Co. has a 12 month low of $170.46 and a 12 month high of $243.56. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $205.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $202.85. 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 quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.29 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be given a $1.70 dividend. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This is a positive change from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s payout ratio is currently 141.37%.

American Tower Company 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.