Beta Finch - American Tower - AMT - EN

More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
──────────
**ALEX:** Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're diving into American Tower's third quarter 2026 results — ticker AMT. This company just raised guidance for the third time this year, and there's a lot to unpack, including a Canada divestiture and some fascinating satellite industry chatter.

I'm Alex, joined as always by Jordan. Before we jump in, quick reminder: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN:** Thanks, Alex. And yeah, this was a busy one. American Tower is basically two businesses in one now — the classic tower leasing business, and this increasingly dominant data center play through CoreSite. Let's start with the headline numbers.

**ALEX:** Right. Property revenue grew about 4.5% — or closer to 7% on a cash, FX-neutral basis once you strip out a one-time DISH churn impact. That DISH churn thing keeps coming up, so we'll circle back to it. The real star, though, was CoreSite — data center cash revenue up 16.3%. Management actually raised their full-year data center growth outlook to 16%, up from 15% last quarter and 13% at the start of the year.

**JORDAN:** That trajectory is wild — 13, to 15, to 16% in just three quarters. It tells you demand from cloud and AI customers is accelerating faster than even AT themselves expected. CEO Steven Vondran called it "record leasing activity," and CFO Rodney Smith backed that up with some eye-popping details — cash mark-to-market on renewals running in the double digits this quarter, versus the usual 3-4%.

**ALEX:** That's a huge jump. Basically, when existing CoreSite customers renew, their rent is jumping way more than historical norms because demand is outstripping supply.

**JORDAN:** Exactly — and that's the kind of pricing power you want to see. Though Rodney did caution the full-year number will normalize closer to 6%, so don't extrapolate that double-digit renewal pricing for the whole year.

**ALEX:** Good nuance. Now, let's talk strategy, because this quarter had a big one: American Tower agreed to sell its Canadian business for roughly $2 billion, at about 26 times forward EBITDA.

**JORDAN:** That multiple is really the headline there. It tells you the market is willing to pay up for quality tower assets — and it validates how much value is baked into AT's North American portfolio generally. Management's framing this as "capital recycling" — take proceeds from a slower-growth market and redeploy into CoreSite, debt paydown, and buybacks.

**ALEX:** Speaking of buybacks — they repurchased about $315 million of stock in the quarter, plus another $68 million in October. And the board just tacked on a fresh $2 billion authorization, bringing total remaining capacity to around $3.1 billion.

**JORDAN:** That's a real signal of confidence from management. And leverage sits at 4.9 times net debt to EBITDA — comfortably inside their 3-to-5x target range, with the best credit rating in the tower peer group. So they've got real flexibility to keep doing all of this at once: buybacks, debt reduction, and growth investment.

**ALEX:** Let's get into the Q&A, because there was a really interesting exchange about satellite companies — specifically Starlink — potentially building out a terrestrial wireless network in the US.

**JORDAN:** This was probably the most forward-looking moment on the call. Analysts kept pushing on it, and Vondran's answer was basically: "Anyone building wireless infrastructure at scale in the US has to come to us." He pointed out AT already owns the equipment DISH abandoned in bankruptcy — including potentially valuable spectrum-adjacent gear — and they can make that available to any interested party.

**ALEX:** It's a classic "picks and shove

This episode includes AI-generated content.

More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
──────────
ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're digging into American Tower's second quarter 2026 results — ticker AMT. And Jordan, before we get into towers and data centers, I want to say upfront: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

JORDAN: Good context to set. And this was a genuinely eventful quarter — they raised guidance for the second time this year, exited an entire region, and had a literal call disconnection mid-Q&A. So let's dig in.

ALEX: Let's start with the headline numbers. Consolidated property revenue grew over 5% year-over-year excluding FX and straight-line noise. But here's the thing — there's a DISH Network asterisk on almost every metric this quarter.

JORDAN: Right, DISH churn is the big one-time drag. Strip that out, and property revenue actually grew over 7% on a cash, FX-neutral basis. Organic tenant billings growth was nearly 2% as reported, but 4% excluding DISH.

ALEX: And AFFO per share — the metric REIT investors really care about — grew about 1% as reported, but over 5% normalized for DISH and refinancing costs. CFO Rod Smith basically called this a "trough year" for AFFO growth.

JORDAN: Which is an important framing. They're saying 2026 absorbs a bunch of one-time headwinds — DISH churn worth about 400 basis points, higher refinancing costs at 150 basis points, and a step-down in their services business. Normalize all that out and you're looking at roughly 7% AFFO per share growth on an FX-neutral basis.

ALEX: So the story is: messy optics this year, cleaner story in 2027.

JORDAN: Exactly. And they backed that up with action — raising full-year guidance across property revenue, EBITDA, and AFFO. Property revenue outlook up $110 million at the midpoint, EBITDA up $45 million, AFFO up nine cents a share.

ALEX: Now let's talk about the real star of the show — CoreSite, their data center business. This thing keeps stealing the spotlight from the core tower business.

JORDAN: It's wild. CoreSite delivered record leasing this quarter — CEO Steve Vondran said they added more new business this single quarter than in all of 2021. Data center revenue grew about 12%, and management raised the full-year data center growth outlook to approximately 15%, up from 13%.

ALEX: And the AI angle is really the hook here. Nine of the top 10 AI companies and three of the top five neoclouds are already housed in CoreSite facilities.

JORDAN: What struck me is the framing around interconnection — it's not just renting rack space anymore. Customers are building private "on-ramps" to move massive datasets directly between cloud and AI environments. That's a stickier, higher-value business than plain colocation.

ALEX: They've grown CoreSite's capacity one and a half times since acquiring it in 2021, and management says there's a clear runway to nearly triple it from here.

JORDAN: On the strategic side, the big move this quarter was completing the sale of their Philippines and Bangladesh operations — that's a full exit from the APAC region. It's part of a multi-year pivot toward developed markets and higher-quality earnings streams.

ALEX: And leverage is now sitting at 4.9 times, right in their target range of three to five times. Balance sheet flexibility was a recurring theme — they're weighing M&A, buybacks, and further deleveraging.

JORDAN: On buybacks specifically, they've spent about $200 million so far this year against a $2 billion authorized program, with roughly $1.4 billion left to deploy.

ALEX: Let's get into the Q&A, because there was some good stuff — including an actual technical outage where the call cut out for several minutes during CFO Rod Smith's capital allocation answer.

JORDAN: That was a l

This episode includes AI-generated content.

# Beta Finch Podcast Script: American Tower (AMT) Q1 2026 Earnings

**ALEX**: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex.

**JORDAN**: And I'm Jordan. Today we're diving into American Tower's Q1 2026 results - and folks, this one's got some interesting twists.

**ALEX**: Before we jump in, I need to share our standard disclaimer: This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN**: Absolutely. Now Alex, American Tower - AMT - is one of the biggest tower companies in the world, and they just reported what I'd call a solid but not spectacular quarter. What caught your attention first?

**ALEX**: Well, they raised guidance across the board, which is always nice to see. But when you dig into the numbers, it's really about foreign exchange tailwinds and some accounting stuff rather than explosive underlying growth. Property revenue guidance went up by about $145 million at the midpoint - sounds great until you realize $110 million of that is just FX helping them out.

**JORDAN**: Right, and there's this whole DISH situation hanging over everything. They've basically written DISH out of their numbers completely because of ongoing litigation. CEO Steven Vondran was pretty clear - they think their contract is enforceable, but they've "completely derisked" their guidance by excluding DISH entirely.

**ALEX**: That's a smart move from a guidance perspective. Any upside from DISH is just gravy at this point. But let's talk about the real growth drivers. What's interesting is their data center business - CoreSite - is absolutely on fire. 17% growth when you strip out the accounting noise.

**JORDAN**: CoreSite is fascinating because it's not just a traditional data center play. Vondran kept emphasizing it's really an "interconnection hub" - people come there to connect to other people, cloud providers, and now AI inference services. They're seeing what they call an "inflection in interconnection activity," which is basically their secret sauce for higher margins.

**ALEX**: And they're doubling down on it. Over $700 million in growth capital planned for CoreSite to build out capacity. They're buying land, securing power, even looking at new markets - though Vondran wouldn't spill details on where.

**JORDAN**: The AI angle is particularly interesting. They're not just riding the AI wave passively - they're positioning CoreSite as the place where AI workloads want to be because of all those interconnections. It's like being the popular kid at school that everyone wants to hang out with.

**ALEX**: Ha! That's actually a pretty good analogy. Now on the traditional tower side, organic growth was around 4% when you adjust for the DISH mess - solid but not spectacular. What stood out to me was their commentary about potentially getting back into new tower construction in the U.S.

**JORDAN**: Yeah, that was intriguing. They've been pretty quiet on U.S. build-to-suit for a while, but Vondran hinted they're having conversations with carriers about it. Meanwhile, they're actively building in Europe - 700 new sites planned there. The economics seem to work better overseas right now.

**ALEX**: Let's talk about the elephant in the room - all the M&A speculation in the tower space. When asked about potential deals, Vondran was diplomatically non-committal but said they look at "everything." No strategic imperative to overpay, though.

**JORDAN**: I loved his response to the question about what it means if competitors go private. Basically said they don't run their business based on what others are doing, but acknowledged the valuation disconnect between public and private markets. Very measured response.

**ALEX**: The satellite question was interesting too. David Barden asked about SpaceX potentially disrupting te

This episode includes AI-generated content.

**Beta Finch Podcast Script: American Tower Q4 2025 Earnings**

---

**ALEX:** Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex, and I'm here with my co-host Jordan to dive into American Tower's Q4 2025 results. This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

**JORDAN:** Thanks Alex. American Tower just wrapped up what they're calling "a great year and excellent fourth quarter," but there's definitely some complexity beneath the surface. The big headline number looks solid - they delivered 8% growth in attributable AFFO per share for the full year, with an impressive 13% growth in Q4 alone.

**ALEX:** Right, and that 8% growth sits right in their long-term target range of mid-to-high single digits. But Jordan, there's an elephant in the room here that's affecting their 2026 outlook - can you walk us through the DISH situation?

**JORDAN:** Absolutely. So DISH has defaulted on their payment obligations to American Tower, and management has completely removed DISH from their 2026 guidance. To put this in perspective, DISH represented about 2% of consolidated property revenue and 4% of U.S. and Canada property revenue in 2025. We're talking roughly $200 million annually through 2035-2036.

**ALEX:** That's a significant hit. How is this affecting their 2026 outlook?

**JORDAN:** Well, it's pretty dramatic. Their consolidated organic tenant billings growth is expected to be only about 1% in 2026. But here's the key - if you exclude the DISH churn, that number jumps to 4%. So the underlying business is still performing well, but this one-time event is masking that growth.

**ALEX:** I noticed they're being pretty aggressive about pursuing legal action against DISH. What's the company saying about potential recovery?

**JORDAN:** CEO Steven Vondran was clear that they plan to "fight in the litigation" and think their contract is enforceable. But they're not counting on any recovery in their guidance - anything they collect would be upside. Smart approach from a conservative forecasting standpoint.

**ALEX:** Let's talk about the regional performance because there's quite a bit of variation. What stood out to you?

**JORDAN:** The regional story is really interesting. In Africa and Asia-Pacific, they're expecting 8.5% organic tenant billings growth - that's actually accelerating from 2025 levels. Europe is steady at 4%. But Latin America is the real challenge, with organic tenant billings expected to decline 3% due to elevated churn in Brazil from carrier consolidation.

**ALEX:** That Latin America situation sounds concerning. How is management framing that?

**JORDAN:** Actually, they're surprisingly optimistic. They're saying the churn is happening faster than expected, which means the market repair in Brazil should happen sooner - they now expect growth to accelerate in 2027 instead of 2028. It's one of those "short-term pain, long-term gain" situations.

**ALEX:** Now, one area that's been a real bright spot is their data center business through CoreSite. What are the numbers there?

**JORDAN:** CoreSite is absolutely crushing it. They're expecting 13% growth in their U.S. data center business in 2026, and this is their fourth consecutive year of record sales growth. What's really exciting is the AI component - demand for AI-related use cases like inferencing and machine learning is becoming their fastest-growing segment.

**ALEX:** I caught in the Q&A that they actually have more demand for inferencing than they can currently meet. That seems like a good problem to have.

**JORDAN:** Exactly! Vondran mentioned they're being selective about their customer mix, only choosing "the best names in the space." They're investing over $700 million in their data center portfolio in 2026, primarily to replenish capa

This episode includes AI-generated content.