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Collins Stewart Maintains a 'Buy' on American Tower (AMT); AT&T (T) / T-Mobile News a Negative

March 21, 2011 7:23 AM EDT
AMT Hot Sheet
Rating Summary:
    12 Buy, 1 Hold, 0 Sell

Rating Trend: = Flat

Today's Overall Ratings:
    Up: 13 | Down: 8 | New: 25
Collins Stewart maintains a 'Buy' on American Tower (NYSE: AMT), PT $63.

Collins analyst said, "Although the merger of two wireless carriers with a common technology (GSM based) represents an unambiguous negative for the tower stocks in that investors will expect at least some of the 40k + cell sites to be rationalized, it is important to note that because T-Mobile USA’s 3G (NYSE: DT) spectrum runs on the AWS frequency while AT&T’s (NYSE: T) runs on a combination of 1900 and 850 Mhz. Therefore, even if contracts allowed, we would expect the same cell site rationalization that we witnessed during the Cingular (BellSouth – SBC Communications) merger with AT&T Wireless – slow and simply not noticeable in the financials of the tower stocks. With AT&T’s commitment to a rural broadband build out, we expect SBA Communications (Nasdaq: SBAC) should have the least adverse (and possible positive) impact."

"While this is higher than most of the telecom companies, we believe the premium valuation is justified driven by positive macro drivers, favorable business model and increasing margins and cash flow."

For more ratings news on American Tower click here and for the rating history of American Tower click here.

Shares of American Tower closed at $50.62 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $38.09-$56.84.


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