American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Raised to “Overweight” at Wells Fargo & Company

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) was upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has a $230.00 price target on the real estate investment trust’s stock, up from their previous price target of $210.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 7.07% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $214.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Tower presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $228.79.

American Tower Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:AMT opened at $214.82 on Monday. American Tower has a one year low of $170.46 and a one year high of $243.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market cap of $100.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 90.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $193.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $205.54.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.29 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in American Tower by 5.4% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,935 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,310,000 after acquiring an additional 508 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in American Tower by 20.7% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 177,947 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $41,383,000 after acquiring an additional 30,499 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in American Tower by 1.1% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 130,175 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,273,000 after acquiring an additional 1,453 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC raised its position in American Tower by 412.8% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 7,836 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,822,000 after acquiring an additional 6,308 shares during the period. Finally, Strengthening Families & Communities LLC raised its position in American Tower by 8.0% during the third quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 10,523 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,447,000 after acquiring an additional 778 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.