Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc. Trims Holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,190 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 206 shares during the quarter. Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in American Tower were worth $585,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AMT. Balentine LLC purchased a new stake in American Tower in the third quarter worth $586,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of American Tower by 28.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,421,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $260,743,000 after purchasing an additional 314,769 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of American Tower during the third quarter valued at about $1,156,000. Czech National Bank raised its stake in American Tower by 6.9% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 95,149 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $22,128,000 after buying an additional 6,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management lifted its holdings in American Tower by 29.0% in the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,629,000 after buying an additional 1,995 shares during the period. 92.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

American Tower Stock Performance

AMT stock opened at $185.17 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $86.53 billion, a PE ratio of 78.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $192.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $211.24. American Tower Co. has a 12-month low of $170.46 and a 12-month high of $243.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.45 by ($1.56). American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that American Tower Co. will post 10.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of $1.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.50%. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 273.42%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on AMT shares. Mizuho decreased their target price on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of American Tower from $260.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of American Tower from $251.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $215.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other American Tower news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total value of $3,000,283.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.