American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its position in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 17.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,346,085 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 895,244 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.93% of American Tower worth $797,115,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AMT. Glenview Trust co raised its position in shares of American Tower by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Glenview Trust co now owns 7,056 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,294,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its stake in American Tower by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,426 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $332,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $235,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of American Tower by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,113 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $206,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in American Tower by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,172 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $398,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AMT shares. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of American Tower in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $250.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho cut their target price on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $232.07.

American Tower Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of NYSE AMT opened at $220.43 on Monday. American Tower Co. has a 1 year low of $170.46 and a 1 year high of $243.56. The company has a market capitalization of $103.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 93.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $202.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $203.72.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. The firm had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.29 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 is an increase from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 11th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is presently 141.37%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was 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 owns 62,792 shares in the company, valued at $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.