National Pension Service Acquires 89,363 Shares of American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT)

Key Points

• The National Pension Service increased its stake in American Tower Corporation by 8.5%, acquiring an additional 89,363 shares to total 1,141,275 shares, valued at approximately $248.34 million.
• American Tower reported $2.60 earnings per share for the latest quarter, slightly above expectations, but with a 9.4% year-over-year revenue decline.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.70 per share, yielding 3.3% annually, although it has a high payout ratio of 247.27%.

National Pension Service lifted its stake in shares of American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT - Free Report) by 8.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,141,275 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 89,363 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned about 0.24% of American Tower worth $248,341,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. MSH Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 1st quarter worth about $2,290,000. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of American Tower during the 1st quarter worth about $91,000. LGT Group Foundation lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 49,132 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $10,691,000 after buying an additional 6,524 shares during the last quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. now owns 71,860 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $15,637,000 after buying an additional 687 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of American Tower by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 914,671 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $198,953,000 after buying an additional 34,420 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Raymond James Financial set a $250.00 target price on shares of American Tower and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of American Tower in a research note on Monday, May 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $255.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $245.00 price objective (down previously from $250.00) on shares of American Tower in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of American Tower from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $244.47.

American Tower Price Performance

AMT stock traded up $2.74 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $206.20. The stock had a trading volume of 2,640,404 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,248,539. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.36. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $217.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $211.67. American Tower Corporation has a 52 week low of $172.51 and a 52 week high of $243.56.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Juan Font sold 720 shares of American Tower stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.33, for a total transaction of $149,997.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,425 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,880,130.25. The trade was a 2.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company's stock.

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.