Piper Jaffray Overweight On American Tower Corp. (AMT)

Piper Jaffray has an Overweight rating on shares of American Tower Corp. AMT after meeting with company management. It has a $57 price target on shares. In a note to investors, Piper Jaffray writes, "The company received a favorable private letter ruling from the IRS related to certain significant REIT qualification tests. Additionally, a preliminary analysis of American's earnings and profits suggests that accumulated earnings and profits should be $200M or less by year-end 2011 - the actual distribution, if any, has not been determined." Piper Jaffray goes on to say, "The company reviewed the impact of previous mergers and found that two years after the close of large transactions, revenue to AMT was 30 - 40% higher than each company was generating on a stand-alone basis. While this may have been higher had the companies continued as separate entities, we think this shows that, despite site rationalization, mergers can still drive growth for the towers." Shares of AMT lost 55 cents yesterday to close at $52.41, a loss of over 1%.