Should American Tower Stock Be in Your Portfolio Pre-Q4 Earnings?

American Tower Corporation AMT is scheduled to release fourth-quarter 2025 results on Feb. 24, before the opening bell. The company’s quarterly results are expected to reflect a year-over-year growth in revenues as well as adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share.

In the last reported quarter, American Tower posted an AFFO per share attributable to AMT common stockholders of $2.78, which beat the consensus estimate. The quarterly results reflected a year-over-year rise in revenues, aided by revenue growth across its property and service operations segment.

Over the preceding four quarters, the company’s AFFO per share topped on two occasions, met once and missed in the remaining period, the average beat being 2.86%. The graph below depicts this surprise history:

American Tower Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

American Tower Corporation price-eps-surprise | American Tower Corporation Quote

Factors at Play and Q4 Projections for AMT

The advancement in mobile technology, such as 4G and 5G, and the proliferation of bandwidth-intensive applications, propel growth in mobile data usage globally. The advent of next-generation technologies, including edge computing functionality, autonomous vehicle networks and the Internet-of-Things, along with the rampant usage of network-intensive applications for video conferencing, cloud services and hybrid-working scenarios, has rapidly increased wireless connectivity usage.

Amid this, wireless service providers and carriers have been deploying additional equipment for existing networks to enhance network coverage and capacity. This positive trend is likely to have favorably impacted the quarterly performance for AMT, driving its top-line growth.

The REIT is also anticipated to have continued with its macro-tower investments to expand its global footprint during the quarter, backed by a solid balance sheet position.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for operating revenues from the Total Property segment is pegged at $2.61 billion, which implies an uptick of 5.1% from the figure reported in the year-ago period.

The consensus estimate for operating revenues from the Data Centers segment is currently pegged at $271.6 million, indicating an increase from $236 million in the year-ago period.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly revenues stands at $2.68 billion, which implies growth of 5.1% from the year-ago period’s reported figure.

American Tower’s activities during the soon-to-be-reported quarter have been inadequate to gain analysts’ confidence. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly AFFO per share has remained unchanged at $2.54 in the past three months. However, the figure implies a 9.5% jump from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.

What Our Quantitative Model Predicts for AMT

Our proven model does not conclusively predict a likely surprise in terms of AFFO per share for American Tower this season. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an AFFO beat, which is not the case here.

American Tower has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and currently carries a Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell). You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Performance of Other REITs

Digital Realty Trust DLR reported fourth-quarter 2025 core FFO per share of $1.86, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.83. FFO also increased 7.5% year over year.

Results reflected steady leasing momentum with better rental rates amid rising demand.

W.P. Carey WPC reported fourth-quarter 2025 AFFO per share of $1.27, topping the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.26. The figure improved 5% from the year-ago quarter.

Results highlighted higher revenues, aided by strong investment activity and improved rents.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research