In the latest trading session, American Tower (AMT – Free Report) closed at $233.95, marking a -0.62% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500’s daily loss of 0.15%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.11%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.24%.
Heading into today, shares of the wireless communications infrastructure company had gained 9.19% over the past month, outpacing the Finance sector’s gain of 2.01% and the S&P 500’s gain of 3.88% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from AMT as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, AMT is projected to report earnings of $1.90 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 20.83%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.93 billion, down 9.32% from the prior-year quarter.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for AMT. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company’s business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.48% higher. AMT is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that AMT has a Forward P/E ratio of 27.09 right now. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 15.49.
Investors should also note that AMT has a PEG ratio of 1.47 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company’s expected earnings growth rate. REIT and Equity Trust – Other stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 3.61 based on yesterday’s closing prices.
The REIT and Equity Trust – Other industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 174, putting it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
