Quantbot Technologies LP Purchases 10,256 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 129.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 18,182 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 10,256 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in American Tower were worth $3,335,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of American Tower in the fourth quarter worth about $129,000. Loudon Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Loudon Investment Management LLC now owns 12,733 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,335,000 after acquiring an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,377 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $986,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 22,513 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,129,000 after acquiring an additional 1,574 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 133,377 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $24,463,000 after acquiring an additional 2,494 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AMT shares. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Citizens Jmp raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of American Tower from $219.00 to $213.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Tower currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $229.43.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE AMT opened at $216.41 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $101.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 91.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $195.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $205.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. American Tower Co. has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.29 earnings per share. Analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $1.70 dividend. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is 141.37%.

American Tower 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.