Benchstone Capital Management LP Makes New $40.37 Million Investment in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT)

Benchstone Capital Management LP purchased a new position in American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 220,084 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $40,366,000. American Tower comprises about 4.2% of Benchstone Capital Management LP’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Partners Group Holding AG grew its holdings in American Tower by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Partners Group Holding AG now owns 378,592 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $69,438,000 after purchasing an additional 28,988 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings 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 worth $260,743,000 after buying an additional 314,769 shares during the period. TigerOak Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in American Tower in the 4th quarter valued at $1,102,000. Brookstone Capital Management raised its holdings in American Tower by 29.0% in the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,629,000 after acquiring an additional 1,995 shares during the period. Finally, Aviva PLC lifted its position in American Tower by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 388,487 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $71,252,000 after acquiring an additional 46,009 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AMT shares. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on American Tower from $248.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho dropped their price target on American Tower from $221.00 to $204.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of American Tower from $234.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of American Tower from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of American Tower from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, American Tower currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $239.27.

American Tower Trading Down 0.2 %

AMT stock opened at $223.49 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. The firm has a market cap of $104.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 94.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. American Tower Co. has a 1-year low of $172.51 and a 1-year high of $243.56. The business’s 50 day moving average is $213.58 and its 200-day moving average is $202.04.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released 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. American Tower had a return on equity of 22.01% and a net margin of 10.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.79 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that American Tower Co. will post 10.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 11th were paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. This represents a $6.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.04%. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 11th. American Tower’s dividend payout ratio is currently 141.37%.

American Tower Company 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.