American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.62

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 23rd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.62 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, July 12th. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.47%.

American Tower has raised its dividend by an average of 12.5% annually over the last three years. American Tower has a dividend payout ratio of 93.2% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Research analysts expect American Tower to earn $10.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.8%.

American Tower Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AMT traded down $4.74 during trading on Thursday, reaching $186.60. 1,751,005 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,431,271. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.14 billion, a PE ratio of 43.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.71. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $185.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $196.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.39, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. American Tower has a 12-month low of $154.58 and a 12-month high of $219.10.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by ($0.47). The firm had revenue of $2.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.79 billion. American Tower had a return on equity of 18.45% and a net margin of 18.42%. The company’s revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.54 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that American Tower will post 9.96 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at American Tower

In other news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 11,510 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.71, for a total value of $2,367,722.10. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,969 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,953,352.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other American Tower news, Director Pamela D. A. Reeve sold 5,054 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.46, for a total value of $962,584.84. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 18,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,532,080.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 11,510 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.71, for a total transaction of $2,367,722.10. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,969 shares in the company, valued at $12,953,352.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 17,264 shares of company stock worth $3,458,757. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on AMT. Raymond James raised shares of American Tower from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $226.00 to $248.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of American Tower from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $228.00 to $220.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $243.00 to $223.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Mizuho started coverage on shares of American Tower in a research note on Monday, April 8th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $205.00 price objective for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $221.91.

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.