American Tower Corp Stock Buy Recommendation Reiterated (AMT)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- American Tower (NYSE:AMT) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of A- . The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, notable return on equity, solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally poor debt management on most measures that we evaluated.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• AMT's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 16.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 23.8%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
• Powered by its strong earnings growth of 143.47% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 34.67% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, AMT should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
• AMERICAN TOWER CORP reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, AMERICAN TOWER CORP increased its bottom line by earning $1.00 versus $0.93 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($1.79 versus $1.00).
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) industry. The net income increased by 141.0% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $91.84 million to $221.31 million.
• The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) industry and the overall market, AMERICAN TOWER CORP's return on equity exceeds that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.

American Tower Corporation, a real estate investment trust, operates as a wireless and broadcast communications infrastructure company. It develops, owns, and operates communications sites. The company has a P/E ratio of 52.5, equal to the average telecommunications industry P/E ratioand above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. American Tower has a market cap of $27.33 billion and is part of the technology sector and telecommunications industry. Shares are up 18.4% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

You can view the full American Tower Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

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