American Tower’s Strong International Performance Outweighed Weak Q2 U.S. Results

American Tower's U.S. results were mildly disappointing in the second quarter, even considering that the high levels of tower churn resulting from the expiration of Sprint contracts and weakness surrounding master lease agreement fees were well telegraphed. However, business was strong across all international markets, even apart from the boost many of those markets got from inflation-based escalators. Overall, the high exposure to promising international prospects is the reason we prefer American Tower to its peers, and we don’t expect American Tower to lag its peers in the domestic market long term. We are maintaining our $210 fair value estimate, making the stock overvalued at current levels.