Morgan Stanley Lowers American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Price Target to $213.00

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) had its price target lowered by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $219.00 to $213.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 4.49% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on AMT. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $227.00.

American Tower Stock Performance

NYSE:AMT opened at $203.84 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $207.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market cap of $95.25 billion, a PE ratio of 86.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.84. American Tower has a 1-year low of $170.46 and a 1-year high of $243.56.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.83. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at American Tower

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. This represents a 20.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Tower by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. now owns 40,975 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,515,000 after purchasing an additional 3,131 shares during the period. Ameriflex Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter worth about $63,000. United Advisor Group LLC grew its position in shares of American Tower by 30.6% during the fourth quarter. United Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,055 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $744,000 after acquiring an additional 951 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in shares of American Tower by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 268,712 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $49,284,000 after acquiring an additional 18,141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinney & Scofield Inc. bought a new position in shares of American Tower during the fourth quarter worth about $102,000. 92.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.