Ballentine Partners LLC Sells 435 Shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Ballentine Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,591 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 435 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in American Tower were worth $1,759,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Balentine LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Tower during the third quarter valued at about $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew 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 worth $260,743,000 after purchasing an additional 314,769 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in American Tower in the third quarter worth about $1,156,000. Czech National Bank grew its holdings in American Tower by 6.9% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 95,149 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $22,128,000 after purchasing an additional 6,163 shares during the period. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management grew its holdings in American Tower by 29.0% in the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,629,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

American Tower Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of American Tower stock opened at $189.94 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $88.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50 day moving average is $192.75 and its 200 day moving average is $211.51. American Tower Co. has a twelve month low of $170.46 and a twelve month 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.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by ($1.56). The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be given 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 yield of 3.41%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 273.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This trade represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AMT. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $245.00 to $230.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price 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. Finally, Mizuho dropped 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Tower has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.67.

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.