American Tower Corp (AMT) stock analysis
American Tower Corp (AMT) clears 4 of this site's 8 mechanical value filters, 5 of 8 Buffett-style checks and 3 of 5 Lynch-style checks. A free-cash-flow DCF does not fit real estate companies, so no margin of safety is shown. It returns +4.0% to shareholders net of dilution. Figures are as of October 23, 2026, from SEC filings and market data refreshed weekly; this is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Data as of October 23, 2026. Refreshed weekly from SEC filings and market data.
What does American Tower do?
American Tower is a REIT that owns more than 140,000 cell towers and other communications sites around the world and leases space on them to wireless carriers. It also owns data centers.
Brands and businesses it owns
- CoreSite
What stands out about American Tower?
- Misses 2 of the 8 value filters. It fails Price/Book < 8 (22.69) and Price/Sales < 7 (7.71); the other 4 pass and 2 were not evaluated. See every filter.
- Strongest against peers: return on equity. At 92% (peer median 8%) it ranks 2nd of 30 among real estate stocks this site tracks. See the ranking.
- Insiders have been buying. 1 open-market purchase was reported in SEC Form 4 filings in the last 90 days, about $1.4 million in all. See the Insider Buying Tracker.
- Dividend raises 2 of 6 flags. Its trailing yield is 3.83%. See the Sustainable Dividend Screener.
How has American Tower's share price moved?
The interactive price chart needs JavaScript.
Is American Tower undervalued? The value diligence check
Every value-investing signal this site computes for this stock, gathered in one place: the same real numbers from the tools below, not a new score.
- Margin of safety (DCF) n/a (Real Estate)
- P/E vs. its own history 24.8x · at/below its cheapest point Real range: 31.3x–73.8x over 5 years (net income per diluted share from each fiscal year's 10-K, paired with the real closing price at that fiscal year-end).
- Wall St. analyst rating Buy · 4.14/5 29 analysts this month: 8 strong buy, 17 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell, 0 strong sell (Finnhub).
- Altman Z″-Score (bankruptcy risk) n/a (Real Estate)
- Earnings quality (is the profit real?) n/a (bank, insurer or REIT)
- Shareholder yield (cash back to owners) +4.0% net Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 3.8% + buybacks 0.4% − stock comp 0.2%, as a share of today's market cap. Over 14 years its split-adjusted share count rose 17%. See Shareholder Yield Leaders.
- Capital needed to grow (See's test) n/a (bank, insurer, lender or REIT)
- PEG (growth at a reasonable price) 0.15 · Well under fair P/E 24.8× ÷ 167% a year of growth behind it. 12th lowest of 447 stocks with a usable PEG. Lynch's fair value is a PEG of 1; a very high PEG usually means almost no growth, a very low one a profit spike. See PEG Ratio Ranking.
- Compounder lenses (4) 2 of 4 · misses capital-light (n/a), real profit (n/a) Capital-light growth: cannot be measured (bank, insurer, lender or REIT); Profit is real: cannot be measured (bank, insurer or REIT); Cash to owners: cleared; Fair price (PEG): cleared. See Compounders at a Fair Price, which also lets you move the PEG bar.
- Munger's Inversion Check 0 flags
- Standing vs. sector peers 3 of 4 measures above the median Compared with the 29 other real estate stocks this site tracks: 3 in the top third, 0 in the bottom third.
- Dividend payout sustainability 2/6 flags
How does American Tower compare with its peers?
3 of 4 measures sit above the median of the 29 other real estate stocks tracked here, 3 in the top third.
- P/E ratiolower is cheaper · peer median 31.5× 24.8× ✓9th of 29
- Return on equityhigher is better · peer median 8% 92% ✓2nd of 30
- Net marginhigher is better · peer median 20.9% 31.1% ✓8th of 30
- Dividend yieldamong dividend payers · peer median 4.08% 3.83% –17th of 28
Peers are the stocks this site tracks in the same sector group, not every listed competitor. The bar runs from the weakest peer (left) to the strongest (right); the tick is the middle. Measures that don't apply to a sector (cash-flow yield for banks, debt for financials) are left out.
What would Buffett & Lynch say?
Buffett's checklist is built around durable, profitable businesses bought at sensible prices, and AMT doesn't clear enough of it yet. In its favor: AMT is currently earning a strong return on shareholders' equity, and has kept that profitability up over five years, not just this year, converts sales into profit at healthy margins, has grown earnings per share at a solid clip over five years, and trades at a reasonable multiple of owner earnings, his own term for the real cash a business could pay out. Where it comes up short: AMT carries more debt relative to equity than he typically tolerates, doesn't cover its interest expense as comfortably as he'd want, and is trading above what a conservative discounted-cash-flow estimate says it's worth right now.
- ROE (TTM) > 11% ✓
- ROE (5yr avg) > 11% ✓
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✕
- Pretax margin > 15% ✓
- EPS growth (5yr) > 7% ✓
- Interest coverage > 5x ✕
- Trading below intrinsic value (DCF) ✕
- Price vs. owner earnings < 25x ✓
- Bonus: returning capital via buybacks FY2025
Lynch looked for growth stories that weren't overpriced for that growth, and AMT falls short of his bar. In its favor: AMT clears an even tighter PEG-under-1 bar he'd want for a stock growing this fast, isn't asking too much even by a fast grower's usual richer multiple, and is generating real cash to back up a fast grower's higher price tag. Where it comes up short: AMT is growing earnings outside the 20-50% band he considered sustainable for a fast grower - either not fast enough to earn the label, or a pace he'd flag as unlikely to hold up, and is leaning on more debt than he liked a growth story to carry.
- PEG < 1 (stricter for fast growers) ✓
- EPS growth 20%-50% ✕
- Debt/Equity < 0.5 ✕
- P/E < 40 ✓
- Price/FCF < 40 ✓
- Bonus: insiders buying (90d) 1 buy, ~$1.4M
Quantitative approximations of each investor's documented approach, not endorsed by either investor or their estates - commentary, not this site's actual ranking criteria. Buffett never published a numeric checklist: only 2 of his 8 checks here trace to his own documented concepts ("owner earnings," from his 1986 shareholder letter, and "price is what you pay, value is what you get," his case against fixed P/E/P/B ceilings) - the other 6 (ROE, debt, margins, growth, interest coverage) use commonly-cited thresholds that are not numbers he himself published. The 8 hard filters below (plus the Munger check and Graham margin of safety) are this site's real, mechanical screen and are computed completely independently of the checklists above.
Berkshire Hathaway's own filing
Which of the 8 value filters does American Tower pass?
- Market Cap > $25B $84.4B
- Trailing P/E < 25 24.82
- PEG Ratio < 1.5 0.15
- Price/Book < 8 22.69
- Price/Sales < 7 7.71
- EPS Growth YoY > -5% +137.8%
- vs 50-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
- vs 200-day MA (±12%) Not evaluated †
What is American Tower's margin of safety?
A standard free-cash-flow DCF doesn't fit how real estate companies report cash flow.
Where is American Tower in its 52-week range?
What is the short interest in American Tower?
7,349,221 shares short as of 2026-09-30 (FINRA settlement date). Reported twice a month, so this only changes roughly every two weeks, not daily.
What could go wrong with American Tower? Munger's inversion check
"Invert, always invert." Instead of reasons to buy, these are reasons to hesitate, not a verdict, and not everything worth knowing about a business.
- Margin of safety, even in the bull case n/a (Real Estate)
- Short interest under 5% of float 1.6%
- Passes most of the 6 fundamental filters 4/6 passed
Doesn't cover circle of competence, management quality, or accounting concerns: those need judgment, not data.
How much have American Tower shareholders gained per year?
Earnings growth per share plus dividend.
An earnings-based proxy, not a stock-price total return - it doesn't capture multiple expansion/contraction or reinvested dividends. EPS from AMT's own 10-K filings; dividend yield is the current trailing yield on today's price, from the same weekly fetch as the rest of this site.
What do American Tower's 10-year financials show?
From AMT's own 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR): up to the last 10 fiscal years. Press any year's bars for the exact figures.
Frequently asked questions about American Tower
What kind of company is American Tower?
American Tower is a REIT that owns more than 140,000 cell towers and other communications sites around the world and leases space on them to wireless carriers. It also owns data centers. Brands and businesses it owns include CoreSite. This site groups it with Real Estate stocks.
Why does American Tower have no margin of safety on this site?
This site's DCF values a company from its free cash flow, and that does not fit real-estate companies, which are valued on property income rather than on free cash flow. So AMT gets no margin of safety; judge it on the other checks on this page, such as its filters, shareholder yield and ranking against its peers. The method is in the Intrinsic Value Calculator.
How many of this site's 8 value filters does American Tower pass?
AMT passes 4 of 8. It passes Market Cap > $25B ($84.4B), Trailing P/E < 25 (24.82), PEG Ratio < 1.5 (0.15) and EPS Growth YoY > -5% (+137.8%). It misses Price/Book < 8 (22.69) and Price/Sales < 7 (7.71). vs 50-day MA (±12%) and vs 200-day MA (±12%) were not evaluated, because the moving-average checks only run on stocks that clear the fundamentals first. The 8-filter list shows every stock that passes all of them.
How much cash does American Tower return to shareholders?
AMT's net shareholder yield is +4.0%: the cash it returns through dividends and buybacks, minus stock-based compensation, as a share of its market value. Latest fiscal year (2025): dividends 3.8% + buybacks 0.4% − stock comp 0.2%, as a share of today's market cap. Over 14 years its split-adjusted share count rose 17%. Its trailing dividend yield is 3.83%, paid out of 81% of its free cash flow; the dividend-sustainability check raises 2 of 6 flags (high leverage and weak interest coverage). See Shareholder Yield Leaders and the Sustainable Dividend Screener.
Are American Tower's insiders buying its shares?
Yes: 1 open-market insider purchase of American Tower shares, worth about $1.4 million in total, was reported in SEC Form 4 filings in the 90 days up to this page's last update. Only open-market purchases count here, not option exercises or stock awards. See the Insider Buying Tracker.
When does American Tower report earnings next?
American Tower's next earnings report is expected on October 27, 2026 before the market opens, with analysts expecting earnings of $1.66 per share. Dates come from the Finnhub earnings calendar and can move. In its last 4 quarters it beat the estimate 4 times, by an average of +14.7%.
Where do these numbers come from?
- Financial statements: American Tower's 10-K annual report for the year ended Dec 31, 2025, filed Feb 24, 2026 (filing index). Every earlier year in the 10-year financials comes from the company's older 10-K filings, all listed on SEC EDGAR.
- Prices and market data: quotes, P/E and analyst ratings from Finnhub; daily price history and the 52-week range from Twelve Data, both refreshed weekly. Short interest comes from FINRA, reported twice a month.
- How to check a figure: click any number in the card above to see its exact source, and read the Editorial Standards for every rule behind the checks.
About this American Tower Corp analysis
This page shows every value-investing check the site runs on American Tower Corp (AMT) in one place: the 8 mechanical filters, the Buffett and Lynch checklists, a margin of safety from a disclosed DCF, earnings quality, shareholder yield and how it ranks against its sector peers. The numbers come from SEC filings and public market data, refreshed weekly, and the same rules apply to every stock on the stock list. See Editorial Standards for the sources and the rules, or run your own filters in the stock screener.