American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT) reported its fourth quarter and 2023 earnings early yesterday citing “solid” growth. For the fourth quarter, total revenues increased 3.0 percent to $2.7 billion while, for the year, they increased to $11 billion.
Steven Vondran, American Tower’s Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We delivered another year of solid results at American Tower. In 2023, we combined record colocation and amendment growth in the U.S. & Canada and a second consecutive year of record sales at CoreSite, with resilient performance in our international markets. We also focused on cost discipline to drive strong margin expansion and cash flow growth despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, and strengthened our financial position through a number of balance sheet initiatives that reduced net leverage, optimized our floating rate debt exposure and extended maturities.”
Highlights included:
Fourth Quarter 2023
- Property revenue increased 4.6 percent to $2.7 billion
- Net income increased 101.9 percent to $13 million
- Adjusted EBITDA increased 3.2 percent to $1.7 billion
Full Year 2023
- Property revenue increased 5.1 percent to $11 billion
- Net income decreased 19.4 percent to $1.3 billion
- Adjusted EBITDA increased 6.7 percent to $7 billion
MoffettNathanson’s Nick DelDeo called American Tower “the best house on a bad block,” outperforming peers Crown Castle and SBA. “The primary reason for its outperformance vs. peers,” DelDeo said, “has been its holistic master lease agreements. In years past, American Tower signed deals with each of the major carriers that contractually commit them to certain minimum levels of leasing each year. Over the long term, there shouldn’t be much of a difference between the results that an MLA-oriented approach and an a la carte approach yield. But with domestic carrier leasing currently in a downcycle, those MLAs provide certainty that investors value.”
Capital expenditures during the fourth quarter of 2023, were approximately $531 million, of which $85 million was for non-discretionary capital improvements and corporate capital expenditures. For the full year 2023, total capital expenditures were approximately $1.8 billion, of which $217 million was for non-discretionary capital improvements and corporate capital expenditures.
For acquisitions during the fourth quarter of 2023, the company spent approximately $16 million to acquire communications sites and other communications related infrastructure globally. For the full year 2023, the company spent approximately $168 million to acquire communications sites, previously subleased sites in the U.S. and other communications related infrastructure globally.
“Looking to 2024 and beyond,” Vondran said, “technology evolutions such as 5G, AI and the requirement for more distributed compute workloads are expected to drive tremendous demand for our communications infrastructure assets. As a result, we’re focused on leveraging our differentiated global scale, best-in-class operating model and investment-grade balance sheet to deliver increasing shareholder returns, strong, sustainable growth and a unique value proposition for all of our stakeholders.”
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