Analysts Set American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Target Price at $235.54

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $235.54.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on AMT shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $245.00 to $230.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on American Tower from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. StockNews.com cut American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on American Tower from $255.00 to $251.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 18th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Tower

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cultivar Capital Inc. purchased a new position in American Tower during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC raised its holdings in American Tower by 269.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 107 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Tower during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Tower during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Trading Down 0.8 %

AMT opened at $207.33 on Friday. American Tower has a 1-year low of $170.46 and a 1-year high of $243.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.84. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $215.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $212.61.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were paid a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 9th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.13%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.