AMT reported solid 3Q results, “beating our site leasing revenues, EBITDA and AFFO per share estimates by 1.4 percent, 1.3 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively,” EvercoreISI analyst Jonathan Schildkraut said in his First Look at the tower giant’s Q3 results. He noted that “domestic organic core revenue growth was 6.0 percent and international organic core revenue growth was 10.7 percent.” He added, “Notably, the updated guidance came in above our FX (foreign exchange) adjusted estimates for site leasing revenues, EBITDA and AFFO per shares by 0.6 percent, 0.6 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.”
The implied 4Q guidance points to a reduction in the AFFO per share estimate by 1.9 percent. “Taken in context with the FY15 AFFO per share increase, we believe the FY15 increase is mostly due to 3Q’s outperformance. Overall, while FX continues to present headwinds, we believe the reset to expectations presents an opportunity going forward,” Schildkraut said
As AMT CEO Jim Taiclet noted, Schildkraut said American Tower’s performance was “driven by acquisitions.” AMT reported total revs of $1.24 billion, up 5.4 percent quarter-to-quarter, and up 19.2 percent year over year. Barclays’ telecom analyst Amir Rozwadowski said American Tower’s results were “better than expected on all metrics vs. our expectations, driven by continued demand growth in both domestic and international markets. Specifically the company reported 3Q results that were 3 percent ahead of our forecasts on revenues (3 percent ahead of rental and management), 4 percent ahead on EBITDA, 5 percent ahead on gross margins and 10 percent ahead on AFFO.”
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