American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Acquired by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 6.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 495,515 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,743 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned approximately 0.11% of American Tower worth $90,882,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,306,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in American Tower by 42.0% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,349 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,348,000 after acquiring an additional 2,172 shares during the period. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd raised its stake in American Tower by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd now owns 229,140 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $42,027,000 after acquiring an additional 31,940 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of American Tower by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 1,516 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Finally, KFG Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of American Tower by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. KFG Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,603 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $294,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on AMT. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank cut their target price on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on American Tower from $215.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $226.42.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the business’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 transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

American Tower Price Performance

NYSE AMT opened at $185.17 on Monday. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $192.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $211.14. The company has a market cap of $86.53 billion, a PE ratio of 78.13, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.50%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is 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.