American Tower Corporation (AMT Quick QuoteAMT - Free Report) recently signed a long-term lease deal with Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ Quick QuoteVZ - Free Report) . With this, the technology and communications services provider has secured access to American Tower’s extensive portfolio of communications sites in the United States to deploy its nationwide 5G network.

As for American Tower, the lease agreement will enhance its long-term U.S. growth trajectory. Also, the move marks an extension of AMT’s decade-long strategic partnership with Verizon. In this context, a new overarching lease agreement has been signed, which will provide a simplified and efficient leasing process through a contractual framework.

Admittedly, accelerations in 5G deployments by carriers to address the growing levels of mobile data traffic, increasing wireless penetration and spectrum auctions will result in meaningful incremental densification and amendment activity for American Tower over the long term.

Wireless service providers and carriers have been deploying additional equipment on existing networks to enhance network coverage and capacity. American Tower is well-poised to benefit from these secular global growth trends in the wireless industry, given the unmatched geographic diversification of its distributed sites. The company has a portfolio of roughly 222,000 communications sites worldwide as well as a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have rallied 9.9% over the past six months against the industry’s decline of 8.5%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Stocks to Consider

Some key picks from the REIT sector include Extra Space Storage (EXR Quick QuoteEXR - Free Report) and Host Hotels & Resorts (HST Quick QuoteHST - Free Report) .

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Extra Space Storage’s ongoing year’s funds from operations (FFO) per share has been raised 2.3% over the past month to $8.46. EXR sports a Zacks Rank #1.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Host Hotels & Resorts’ 2022 FFO per share has moved 4.8% upward in the past week to $1.75. HST presently carries a Zacks Rank of 2.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO) — a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.