First Manhattan CO. LLC. Increases Stock Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. increased its stake in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT - Free Report) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 210,268 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 17,524 shares during the period. First Manhattan CO. LLC.'s holdings in American Tower were worth $41,875,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Partners Group Holding AG increased its position in American Tower by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 378,592 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $69,438,000 after purchasing an additional 28,988 shares during the period. TigerOak Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in American Tower during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,102,000. Brookstone Capital Management increased its position in American Tower by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,629,000 after purchasing an additional 1,995 shares during the period. Aviva PLC increased its position in American Tower by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 388,487 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $71,252,000 after purchasing an additional 46,009 shares during the period. Finally, CCLA Investment Management increased its position in American Tower by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 432,891 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $79,344,000 after purchasing an additional 22,523 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.69% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $248.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $231.00 to $251.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $234.00 to $248.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $239.27.

American Tower Stock Performance

AMT stock traded up $2.08 during trading on Friday, reaching $219.96. The company had a trading volume of 2,499,847 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,480,789. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. American Tower Co. has a twelve month low of $172.51 and a twelve month high of $243.56. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $215.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $201.77. The company has a market cap of $102.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.86.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.34. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The business had revenue of $2.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.79 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th were issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.09%. This is a positive change from American Tower's previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 11th. American Tower's payout ratio is 174.81%.

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.