American Tower Corp raises annual revenue forecast on healthy telecom spending

(Reuters) - American Tower raised its forecast for annual property revenue on Tuesday as the real estate investment trust benefits from healthy telecom and wireless carrier spending.

Telecom companies have continued to increase spending on 5G services to cater to the growing demand for mobile data and other high bandwidth wireless services.

American Tower is also seeing growing demand for its data center leasing business as more firms look to expand their digital infrastructure and take advantage of the artificial intelligence boom.

American Tower now expects full year 2024 total property revenue between $11.08 billion and $11.26 billion, up from its prior forecast of $11.05 billion to $11.23 billion.

The company's property segment, which comprises of its site leasing business, accounted for nearly all of American Tower's revenue last year.

American Tower forecast annual adjusted funds from operations, a key measure of cash flow, between $10.30 and $10.53 per share, compared with its prior outlook of $10.21 to $10.45 per share.

The company — whose customers include T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon — reported first-quarter total revenue of $2.83 billion, beating analysts' estimates of $2.80 billion, according to LSEG data.

American Tower posted adjusted funds from operations of $2.79 per share in the first quarter, compared with estimates of $2.54.

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)