American Tower Corp (AMT) is a Long-Term Buy

The best stock among peers

At the current price of around $77 per share, American Tower is worth nearly $30.5 billion on the market. It has a quite expensive valuation, at 20.6 times EV/EBITDA. However, compared to its peers, including Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE:CCI) and SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC), American Tower has the cheapest valuation.

Crown Castle International is trading at around $72 per share, with a total market cap of nearly $20.9 billion. The market is valuing Crown Castle at more than 21 times EV multiple. SBA, the smallest company among the three, is worth nearly $9.4 billion on the market. With its share price of around $73, it is the most expensive at 24.84 times EV/EBITDA.

American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT) seems to be the most profitable company. Over the past 12 months, American Tower had the highest operating margin at 42%. SBA generated the lowest operating margin at 20%, while the operating margin of Crown Castle stayed at 36%. Interestingly, American Tower employed the least amount of leverage compared to the other two companies. While its debt-to-equity ratio was only 2.1, the debt-to-equity ratios of SBA and Crown Castle were much higher, at 3.7 and 10.8, respectively.

Foolish bottom line

With the lowest valuation, the lowest leverage, and the highest operating margin, I personally think that American Tower is definitely a long-term stock for long-term investors.

The article American Tower is a Long-Term Buy originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Anh Hoang.

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