American Tower Corporation (AMT Quick QuoteAMT - Free Report) is scheduled to release first-quarter 2026 results on April 28, before the opening bell. The company’s quarterly results are expected to reflect year-over-year growth in revenues with a dip in 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 $2.63, which beat the consensus estimate of $2.54. 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 three occasions and met once, the average beat being 3.86%. The graph below depicts this surprise history:

American Tower Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

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

AMT: Factors at Play

Strong growth in mobile data usage — driven by 5G adoption, fixed wireless access and bandwidth-intensive applications — is likely to have supported American Tower’s first-quarter performance. U.S. carriers are increasingly focusing on network densification, adding equipment to existing sites to boost capacity, which continues to drive leasing demand.

AI-driven applications and rising video consumption are further increasing bandwidth and latency requirements, creating additional tailwinds for tower demand.

Robust demand for hybrid cloud and AI workloads is expected to have supported AMT’s data center business. However, tenant churn related to the DISH default may have weighed on reported growth.

Q1 Projections for AMT

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for operating revenues from the Total Property segment is pegged at $2.59 billion, which implies an uptick of 4.1% from the figure reported in the year-ago period.

The consensus estimate for operating revenues from the Data Centers segment is currently pegged at $281.3 million, indicating an increase of 15.3% from the year-ago period.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly revenues stands at $2.65 billion, which calls for growth of 3.6% 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 $2.50 over the past two months. The figure implies a 9.1% decline from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.

What Our Quantitative Model Predicts for AMT

Our proven model does not conclusively predict a 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 3. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Stocks That Warrant a Look

Here are two stocks from the broader REIT sector — BXP, Inc. (BXP Quick QuoteBXP - Free Report) and Cousins Properties (CUZ Quick QuoteCUZ - Free Report) — you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to report a surprise this quarter.

BXP, scheduled to report quarterly numbers on April 28, has an Earnings ESP of +0.17% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Cousins Properties, slated to release quarterly numbers on April 29, has an Earnings ESP of +0.94% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.

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.