American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) Shares Sold by Essex Financial Services Inc.

Essex Financial Services Inc. decreased its position in shares of American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) by 36.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,702 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,571 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $588,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AMT. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 113.0% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,966 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $727,000 after acquiring an additional 2,104 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 89.5% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 5,936 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after acquiring an additional 2,804 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter valued at $1,800,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Tower by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 4,880 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $888,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares during the period. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in American Tower by 383.5% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,751 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $504,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Price Performance

Shares of American Tower stock opened at $220.95 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $215.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $204.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.43. The stock has a market cap of $103.44 billion, a PE ratio of 56.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.82. American Tower Corporation has a 52 week low of $172.51 and a 52 week high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $2.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.54 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 30.20% and a net margin of 17.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.79 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that American Tower Corporation will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. American Tower’s payout ratio is presently 174.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $234.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $245.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $248.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of American Tower in a report on Monday, May 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $255.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $240.25.

American Tower 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.