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American Tower (AMT) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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American Tower (AMT - Free Report) closed at $188.56 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.67% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.93%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.56%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.71%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the wireless communications infrastructure company had lost 6.49% over the past month. This has lagged the Finance sector's gain of 3.55% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.61% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from American Tower as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.36, down 8.88% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $2.73 billion, up 2.23% from the year-ago period.

AMT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $9.66 per share and revenue of $11.01 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -1.02% and +2.75%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for American Tower. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 remained stagnant. American Tower is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that American Tower has a Forward P/E ratio of 19.38 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.97.

It is also worth noting that AMT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.24. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. REIT and Equity Trust - Other stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.09 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 178, which puts it in the bottom 30% 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.

To follow AMT in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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