Among the highlights:
- Total revenue increased 22.4 percent to $1,515 million
- Property revenue increased 23.5 percent to $1,498 million
- Net income increased 169.8 percent to $264 million
- Adjusted EBITDA increased 17.5 percent to $915 million
- Consolidated AFFO increased 14.9 percent to $641 million
Jim Taiclet, American Tower’s Chief Executive Officer stated, “In response to rapid growth in mobile data usage, our tenants continue to utilize a combination of incremental spectrum assets, advancing technology and our diverse portfolio of real estate to expand their mobile networks and deliver top quality service to their subscribers. Our global asset base of nearly 144,000 towers and over 700 small cell systems is uniquely positioned to benefit from these continuing investments, and as a result, we were able to extend our long track record of generating double digit growth in property revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and Consolidated AFFO per Share in the third quarter.”
Below are responses to the report from various analysts around the industry.
Barclays: Amir Rozwadowski
AMT’s 3Q16 Results: “Better Than Expected”
“American Tower reported 3Q results that were better than expected across the board, beating on revenue, gross margin, adjusted EBITDA and AFFO per share. 3Q results were 1.5 percent ahead of our forecasts on property revenues, 1.6 percent above on EBITDA, 2.2 percent above on gross margin, and ~1.6 percent above on AFFO.”
New Street: Spencer Kurn
Results Beat, But International Outlook Softened, Lower Maintenance Capex
“Results beat, with another strong quarter from international, partly offset by weaker than expected domestic trends. AFFO beat by a mile due mostly to lower maintenance capex. Mgmt. increased guidance and numbers will likely head higher – the midpoint of AFFO guidance ($5.75) is now above the Street ($5.72) and the company tends to beat guidance.”
UBS: John Hodulik
3Q Normalized FFO in-Line with Guidance, New Lease Signings Slows
“DFT reported 3Q normalized FFO of $0.73/sh (UBSe $0.72) vs. guidance of $0.72-0.74 and tightened the range of 2016E normalized FFO guidance to $2.77-2.80/sh (prior $2.76-2.82/sh, UBSe $2.80). 3Q AFFO was $0.75/sh (UBSe $0.72) vs. guidance of $0.73-0.75 and the 2016E range was tightened to $2.78-2.81/sh (prior $2.77-2.83/sh, UBSe $2.79). As a result, 4Q normalized FFO guidance is $0.73-0.76/sh (UBSe $0.77) and 4Q AFFO guidance is $0.74-0.77/sh (UBSe $0.77). The company redeemed all of its remaining $100M in Series B preferred during the quarter, saving $13.9M in annual dividend payments.
The company also extended two leases totaling 3.41 MW and 16.4K SF by two years (also previously disclosed). In the recent quarter, same store, same capital revenues rose 5.6 percent yoy vs. 4.7 percent in 2Q; tenant reimbursements rose 18.8 percent while operating costs rose 18.4 percent, leading to a SS NOI increase of 0.4 percent (cash NOI -0.8 percent).”
Published October 26, 2016
