American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Posts Earnings Results, Meets Estimates

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The real estate investment trust reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64, Zacks reports. The company had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.78 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis.

Here are the key takeaways from American Tower’s conference call:

• American Tower raised its 2026 property revenue and AFFO per share outlook for the third time this year, supported by resilient tower leasing, CoreSite outperformance, and share repurchases. Management maintained its adjusted EBITDA outlook.
• CoreSite data center revenue growth is now expected to reach approximately 16%, up from 15% previously, with strong demand from cloud, network, enterprise, and AI customers. Management cited robust leasing, rising interconnection activity, and mid-teens or better expected stabilized yields on incremental capital.
• Management expects 2026 to be the trough year for U.S. and Canada organic tower growth and AFFO per share growth, with acceleration in 2027 as DISH-related churn laps and carrier activity improves. Longer-term catalysts include 5G densification, new spectrum deployments, 6G, AI traffic, and potential satellite-terrestrial network builds.
• The company agreed to sell its Canada portfolio for approximately $202 million and repurchased $315 million of stock during the quarter, with an additional $68 million purchased after quarter-end. The board added $2 billion to the buyback authorization, leaving approximately $3.1 billion available, while leverage remained within the target range at 4.9 times.
• Network services revenue guidance was reduced to approximately $220 million because certain customer projects were delayed, creating a $15 million adjusted EBITDA headwind; management said the work is delayed rather than canceled. Latin America also remained pressured by elevated Brazil churn, while an AT&T Mexico dispute continues with no expected arbitration ruling until early 2027.

American Tower Price Performance

American Tower stock opened at $183.71 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $175.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $177.12. American Tower has a fifty-two week low of $160.06 and a fifty-two week high of $202.50.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $1.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 30th. This represents a $7.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%.

American Tower declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, October 27th that permits the company to buy back $2 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the real estate investment trust to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Share buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AMT. Mizuho set a $208.00 price target on American Tower in a report on Thursday, August 20th. TD Cowen raised their target price on American Tower from $225.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of American Tower in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $190.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised American Tower from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $214.90.

American Tower News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting American Tower this week:

• Positive Sentiment: American Tower exceeded third-quarter expectations, reporting $2.87 in earnings/FFO per share versus a consensus estimate of approximately $2.84, while revenue of $2.79 billion topped estimates of $2.76 billion and increased 2.5% year over year. American Tower Q3 earnings report
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised its full-year 2026 outlook for the third time, with higher property revenue and adjusted funds from operations expectations. The improved guidance indicates resilient demand for wireless infrastructure and continued cash-flow growth. American Tower raises 2026 outlook
• Positive Sentiment: CoreSite data-center revenue grew 16.3%, supported by strong AI and cloud-related leasing activity. American Tower also raised its 2026 data-center revenue growth outlook to 16%, reinforcing the data-center segment as an important growth engine. American Tower data-center outlook
• Positive Sentiment: The board authorized a $2 billion share-repurchase program. Buybacks can support per-share results and signal that management believes AMT shares are attractively valued. American Tower share repurchase authorization
• Negative Sentiment: The stock slipped about 2.4% following the results and underperformed other REITs, indicating that investors may have expected an even stronger outlook or used the announcement to lock in gains. The decline appears driven more by market reaction and valuation concerns than by an earnings shortfall. American Tower stock reaction to Q3 results

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Rajesh Kalathur acquired 2,829 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $177.00 per share, for a total transaction of $500,733.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,374,405. This represents a 57.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

American Tower Company Profile

American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and develops wireless communications infrastructure. Its portfolio primarily includes communications towers, rooftop sites, distributed antenna systems and other infrastructure used by wireless carriers, broadcasters, governments and businesses to support voice, data and video communications.

The company leases space on its sites to multiple customers, allowing them to install antennas and related equipment without building and maintaining individual tower locations.