Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Sells 6,601 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 142,307 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,601 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $26,101,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AMT. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 227.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,364 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $550,000 after acquiring an additional 1,641 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its holdings in American Tower by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 1,743 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $405,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its holdings in American Tower by 68.9% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 33,925 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,890,000 after buying an additional 13,834 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in American Tower by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 88,610 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $20,607,000 after buying an additional 3,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in American Tower by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,935 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,310,000 after buying an additional 508 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Tower

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 transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT stock opened at $211.02 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $98.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. American Tower Co. has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week high of $243.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $192.33 and a 200-day moving average of $205.82.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. American Tower’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.29 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date 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 141.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on AMT shares. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered 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, ten have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Tower presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.29.

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.