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

American Tower Co. (NYSE:AMT) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of 1.62 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $6.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.10%.

American Tower has raised its dividend by an average of 12.5% per year over the last three years. American Tower has a payout ratio of 96.4% 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 $10.08 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 64.3%.

American Tower Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of AMT opened at $209.16 on Friday. American Tower has a 1-year low of $170.46 and a 1-year 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. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $213.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $212.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.25, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.83.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.89 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that American Tower will post 10.08 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMT has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on American Tower from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of American Tower from $255.00 to $251.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of American Tower from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $245.00 to $230.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on American Tower from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Tower presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.54.

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.