Sterling Capital Management LLC Has $10.63 Million Position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Sterling Capital Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 57,968 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,923 shares during the quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $10,632,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AMT. Partners Group Holding AG lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $69,438,000 after purchasing an additional 28,988 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted 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 buying an additional 314,769 shares during the period. TigerOak Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at $1,102,000. Brookstone Capital Management grew 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 acquiring an additional 1,995 shares during the period. Finally, CCLA Investment Management raised its position in shares of American Tower by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 432,891 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $79,344,000 after acquiring an additional 22,523 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citizens Jmp raised American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. JMP Securities assumed coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 price objective for the company. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho reduced their price target 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $232.07.

American Tower Price Performance

AMT stock opened at $208.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $204.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $203.01. The company has a market capitalization of $97.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. American Tower Co. has a 52-week low of $170.46 and a 52-week high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its 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. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. American Tower’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.29 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. This is an increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 141.37%.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.