American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Given a $250.00 Price Target at Raymond James Financial

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 price target on American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a strong-buy rating on the real estate investment trust's stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $245.00 price target (down from $250.00) on shares of American Tower in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of American Tower in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $240.00 to $230.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of American Tower in a report on Monday, May 19th. They set a "buy" rating and a $255.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of American Tower in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set an "overweight" rating and a $250.00 target price on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $243.88.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT stock traded up $3.82 on Wednesday, reaching $212.21. The stock had a trading volume of 1,273,310 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,619,855. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.36. The firm's 50-day moving average is $218.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $210.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.82. American Tower has a 12 month low of $172.51 and a 12 month high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.58 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 12.60% and a return on equity of 24.85%. The business's revenue was down 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.79 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of American Tower

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in American Tower in the first quarter valued at $991,525,000. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 21.8% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 19,176,365 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $3,516,890,000 after acquiring an additional 3,437,602 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 66.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,563,046 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,570,547,000 after acquiring an additional 3,421,413 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 160.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,920,100 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $902,396,000 after acquiring an additional 3,032,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 39.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,144,040 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,772,144,000 after acquiring an additional 2,309,627 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% 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.