American Tower Continues String of Big Revenue Gains

American Tower Corp. increased profit and continued its string of double-digit revenue gains as the cellular-tower company used acquisitions to meet the data demands of smartphone users.

The Boston-based company leases, owns, or operates some 100,000 towers in the U.S. and other countries. During the year, the company has snapped up rights to Verizon towers in the U.S., Telecom Italia's towers in Brazil, Airtel's towers in Nigeria and, most recently, Viom towers in India.

The company spent $345 million on acquisitions in the most recent quarter and $7.02 billion in the year.

For the current year, the company said it expects double-digit growth in its key metrics to continue. The company has posted at least 10% growth in quarterly and annual revenue since 2010.

It expects total property revenue, which doesn't include its small services segment, to be between $5.54 billion and $5.68 billion, or about 20% growth at the midpoint. It expects net income to be between $1.01 billion and $1.12 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected net income of $1.05 billion.

In the fourth quarter, the company posted a profit of $205.9 million, or 48 cents a share, up from $168.6 million, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted funds from operations rose to $1.27 a share from $1.10.

Revenue climbed 22% to $1.28 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast per-share earnings of 51 cents a share on revenue of $1.25 billion.

The business of cellphone towers, a crucial piece of infrastructure used to transmit wireless calls and data, is dominated by three large public companies, including American Tower, and dozens of smaller competitors.

The company also said it changed its reporting segments to provide more transparency to investors. It divided its international segment into three regional ones and renamed its rental and management segment to "property" and its network development services segment to "services."

U.S. revenue grew 22% to $829 million. International revenue grew 21% to $422 million, with 9.9% growth in Latin America, 57% growth in Europe, Middle East and Africa and 12% growth in Asia. Its small services segment grew 2.3% to $29 million.

Shares, which have fallen 23% in the last three months, were inactive in premarket trading.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 26, 2016 08:55 ET (13:55 GMT)

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