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International Markets and American Tower (AMT): A Deep Dive for Investors

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Did you analyze how American Tower (AMT - Free Report) fared in its international operations for the quarter ending March 2024? Given the widespread global presence of this wireless communications infrastructure company, scrutinizing the trends in international revenues becomes imperative to assess its financial strength and future growth possibilities.

In the modern, closely-knit global economic landscape, the capacity of a business to access foreign markets is often a key determinant of its financial well-being and growth path. Investors now place great importance on grasping the extent of a company's dependence on international markets, as it sheds light on the firm's earnings stability, its skill in leveraging various economic cycles and its broad growth potential.

Participation in global economies acts as a defense against economic difficulties at home and a pathway to more rapidly developing economies. However, it also comes with the complexities of dealing with fluctuating currencies, geopolitical risks and different market dynamics.

In our recent assessment of AMT's quarterly performance, we discovered notable trends in its overseas revenue sections, which are typically modeled and scrutinized by Wall Street analysts.

For the quarter, the company's total revenue amounted to $2.83 billion, experiencing an increase of 2.4% year over year. Next, we'll explore the breakdown of AMT's international revenue to understand the importance of its overseas business operations.

A Look into AMT's International Revenue Streams

During the quarter, Latin America contributed $446 million in revenue, making up 15.7% of the total revenue. When compared to the consensus estimate of $441.46 million, this meant a surprise of +1.03%. Looking back, Latin America contributed $435 million, or 15.6%, in the previous quarter, and $464 million, or 16.8%, in the same quarter of the previous year.

Asia-Pacific accounted for 11.5% of the company's total revenue during the quarter, translating to $327 million. Revenues from this region represented a surprise of +11.36%, with Wall Street analysts collectively expecting $293.64 million. When compared to the preceding quarter and the same quarter in the previous year, Asia-Pacific contributed $336 million (12.1%) and $251 million (9.1%) to the total revenue, respectively.

Of the total revenue, $205 million came from Europe during the last fiscal quarter, accounting for 7.2%. This represented a surprise of +4.57% as analysts had expected the region to contribute $196.05 million to the total revenue. In comparison, the region contributed $185 million, or 6.6%, and $192 million, or 6.9%, to total revenue in the previous and year-ago quarters, respectively.

Africa generated $292 million in revenues for the company in the last quarter, constituting 10.3% of the total. This represented a surprise of -2.57% compared to the $299.7 million projected by Wall Street analysts. Comparatively, in the previous quarter, Africa accounted for $294 million (10.6%), and in the year-ago quarter, it contributed $317 million (11.5%) to the total revenue.

International Market Revenue Projections

Wall Street analysts expect American Tower to report $2.82 billion in total revenue for the current fiscal quarter, indicating an increase of 1.6% from the year-ago quarter. Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa are expected to contribute 15.7% ($443.12 million), 10.8% ($302.91 million), 7% ($196.13 million) and 12.3% ($346.18 million) to the total revenue, respectively.

For the full year, the company is expected to generate $11.2 billion in total revenue, up 0.5% from the previous year. Revenues from Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa are expected to constitute 15.9% ($1.78 billion), 9.4% ($1.05 billion), 7% ($788.28 million) and 11.8% ($1.32 billion) of the total, respectively.

Concluding Remarks

Relying on international markets for revenues, American Tower faces both prospects and perils. Thus, tracking the company's international revenue trends is essential for accurately projecting its future trajectory.

In a world where international interdependencies and geopolitical conflicts are ever-increasing, Wall Street analysts closely monitor these trends for companies having international presence to adjust their earnings forecasts. Of course, there are several other factors, including a company's standing within its home borders, that influence analysts' earnings forecasts.

At Zacks, a company's changing earnings outlook is given considerable attention due to its proven, strong influence on a stock's price performance in the near term. The connection here is straightforward and positive: when earnings estimates are revised upward, the stock price generally follows suit, increasing as well.

Our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, with its externally validated exceptional track record, harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions to serve as a dependable measure for anticipating the short-term price trends of stocks.

American Tower currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

A Look at American Tower's Recent Stock Price Performance

Over the past month, the stock has seen a decline of 4.4% in its value, whereas the Zacks S&P 500 composite has posted a decrease of 1.6%. The Zacks Finance sector, American Tower's industry group, has descended 1.7% over the identical span. In the past three months, there's been a decline of 6.5% in the company's stock price, against a rise of 3.8% in the S&P 500 index. The broader sector has increased by 0.6% during this interval.


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