American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Tom Bartlett: Yeah, exactly the same. I mean, it’s €“ as we have said, as we have predicted, as we have thought, and again, it comes down to largely the relationships that we have with our customers. We see strong demand coming out. I still think we’re in the early innings really with 5G. Our customers on average are probably on about half of our sites. So there is a significant amount of opportunity there. But it also comes down to the types of relationships and the arrangements that we have with regards to our MLAs. So we are underscoring really what we had said a year ago relative to growth coming out of 2023 through 2027.

Rick Prentiss: Okay. And the last one for me, taking that to the bottom line, attributable AFFO per share last year at this time mentioned that 21 to 27 maybe above €“ at or above 10%. We’ve had a couple of tough years here with Sprint churn. 2023, we’ve got financing costs, still some Indian reserves. How do we think throw away 2021 to 2027 and just say, hey, as we look at 2023 as a new base point, how are you feeling about that ability to grow attributable FFO per share, dividend per share from this point onwards?

Tom Bartlett: Well, I mean, you’ve got a couple of questions in there. We’re not going to €“ we’re not focused on rolling out a long-term guide at this point, as you would expect. But there have been some significant macro environment changes that happened around the world that we use to underwrite kind of that double-digit expectation, which I think is what you’re referring to. But I’m not letting the foot off the gas in the business, okay? We’re not changing anything at this point in time. Our core growth, as Rod just walked through, really remains really, really strong. And we don’t have any expectations for that kind of growth diminishing. We see kind of 4G, 5G being rolled out across all of our footprints, which really gives us a lot of comfort in terms of being able to suggest that, that growth is going to continue.

Now, also having the types of relationships that we do with our customers in the United States helps underpin a lot of that growth. The interest rates, Rod walked through the impact of rates. It’s kind of a reset in 2023. I believe it to be kind of more of a one-off, if you will, in 2023. So we remain really bullish on going forward. As I said, I’m not going to talk about long-term guide, but I’m not letting the gas €“ letting the foot off the gas at all within the business. With regards to €“ of our dividend program, as you all know, you’re a REIT expert. Our policy is just followed our REIT TI. And it’s been very consistent. We’ve been able to enjoy double-digit rates of growth on our dividend for the better part of the last 10 years actually, which has been very supportive.

And we continue to be €“ we continue to feel that our dividend is an important part of our total shareholder return. So we’re looking at 10% dividend, as Rod talked about this year. It’s difficult really to predict what that might be. It depends upon what we bring into the REIT, what’s not in the REIT, obviously, what kind of M&A exists out there. It could drop a little bit to high single digits. But again, we continue to expect it to grow significantly. And as I said, it’s an important piece of our overall total shareholder return.

Rick Prentiss: Great. Thank so much. Everybody stay well.

Tom Bartlett: You bet.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Rollins from Citi. Please go ahead.

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