Raymond James Financial Reiterates $250.00 Price Target for American Tower (NYSE:AMT)

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial has lowered the price target for American Tower from $251.00 to $250.00, while maintaining a "strong-buy" rating, indicating a potential upside of 18.44% from the current stock price.
• Other analysts have varied price targets for American Tower, with Bank of America setting it at $255.00 and Wells Fargo dropping theirs to $230.00, while the consensus price target among analysts stands at $243.00.
• American Tower reported earnings of $2.60 per share for the last quarter, slightly beating analysts' expectations, but experienced a 9.4% decrease in revenue year-over-year.

Raymond James Financial set a $250.00 target price on American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Free Report) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has a strong-buy rating on the real estate investment trust's stock.

AMT has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of American Tower from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on American Tower from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley began coverage on American Tower in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an "overweight" rating and a $250.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on American Tower from $223.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $243.88.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of American Tower stock traded up $3.79 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $212.18. 3,232,190 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,893,405. The stock has a market cap of $99.33 billion, a PE ratio of 77.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.82. The stock's fifty day moving average is $218.73 and its 200 day moving average is $210.53. American Tower has a 12 month low of $172.51 and a 12 month high of $243.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.36, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.95.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.58 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 12.60% and a return on equity of 24.85%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.79 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 11th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. American Tower's payout ratio is presently 247.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other American Tower news, CEO Juan Font sold 720 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total value of $149,997.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,425 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,880,130.25. This represents a 2.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AMT. North Capital Inc. bought a new position in American Tower in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. grew its position in American Tower by 100.0% in the first quarter. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. now owns 120 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC bought a new position in American Tower in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. bought a new position in American Tower in the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 218.0% during the first quarter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 159 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.