Federated Hermes Inc. Grows Position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 6.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 522,330 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,477 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of American Tower worth $112,761,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Personal Capital Advisors Corp lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 1.7% in the first quarter. Personal Capital Advisors Corp now owns 2,510 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $631,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Lumature Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 40.3% in the first quarter. Lumature Wealth Partners LLC now owns 174 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Alera Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Alera Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,105 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $886,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 18.5% in the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Equity Partners lifted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 7.0% in the first quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 806 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $202,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 92.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AMT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $230.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $183.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $235.00 to $228.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $224.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $217.36.

American Tower Trading Down 0.4 %

AMT traded down $0.61 during trading on Thursday, hitting $171.41. 801,020 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,399,238. The firm has a market capitalization of $79.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.29, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $192.83 and a 200 day moving average of $193.58. American Tower Co. has a 12-month low of $154.58 and a 12-month high of $219.10.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.10 by ($1.16). American Tower had a net margin of 13.31% and a return on equity of 12.80%. The firm had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.34 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.06 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Friday, April 12th will be paid a $1.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 11th. This represents a $6.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.78%. American Tower’s payout ratio is 203.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Pamela D. A. Reeve sold 5,054 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.46, for a total value of $962,584.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,532,080.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other American Tower news, Director Pamela D. A. Reeve sold 5,054 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.46, for a total transaction of $962,584.84. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,532,080.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 11,510 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.71, for a total transaction of $2,367,722.10. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 62,969 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,953,352.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.