Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. Acquires 938 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. increased its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 5.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 16,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 938 shares during the quarter. American Tower accounts for approximately 1.9% of Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $3,072,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC grew its holdings in American Tower by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 11,051 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,027,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares during the period. Iowa State Bank grew its stake in shares of American Tower by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Iowa State Bank now owns 15,843 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,906,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in American Tower by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $260,743,000 after acquiring an additional 314,769 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in American Tower by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 7,173 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,316,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in American Tower by 113.9% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 261 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on AMT. Wells Fargo & Company lowered American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of American Tower from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Tower has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.08.

American Tower Trading Down 1.4 %

American Tower stock traded down $2.57 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $179.99. The company had a trading volume of 2,262,034 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,227,620. The firm has a market cap of $84.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower Co. has a 12-month low of $170.46 and a 12-month high of $243.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $198.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $212.49.

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

American Tower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.60%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 273.42%.

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.