American Tower Lifts 2026 Property Revenue Outlook as Q3 AFFO Rises 2.4%

American Tower Corporation on October 27, 2026 reported total revenue of US$2,785 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, a 2.5% increase from the prior-year period, and raised the midpoint of its full-year 2026 property revenue outlook by $55 million, a revision the company attributed to outperformance in its Data Centers segment.

Total property revenue increased 4.5% to $2,734 million, driven by 1.1% Organic Tenant Billings Growth and 16.3% cash revenue growth in Data Centers, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings release. Adjusted EBITDA rose 0.9% to $1,832 million, a 65.8% margin, and adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) attributable to common stockholders increased 2.4% to $1,335 million, or $2.87 per share, up 3.2%.

Net income decreased 14.4% to $781 million, and net income attributable to American Tower common stockholders fell 10.3% to $766 million, or $1.64 per diluted share, down 9.9%. Nareit Funds From Operations attributable to common stockholders declined 7.7% to $1,165 million. The company said its growth rates were affected by a decrease in non-cash straight-line revenue, which represented approximately negative $24.0 million in the quarter compared with approximately $27.7 million a year earlier, and by unrealized losses on equity investments of approximately $71.5 million, compared with unrealized gains of approximately $10.9 million in the prior-year period.

Cash provided by operating activities was $1,393 million, down 4.6%, and total cash capital expenditures were $407 million, down 14.6%, producing Free Cash Flow of $986 million, up 0.2%. Third-quarter capital expenditures included $48 million for non-discretionary capital improvements and corporate capital expenditures, and the cash capital expenditure total included $9.1 million of finance lease and perpetual land easement payments reported within cash flows from financing activities.

Segment Revenue and Tenant Billings

U.S. & Canada segment property revenue was $1,275 million, a 3.3% decline from a year earlier. Latin America property revenue rose 10.4% to $460 million, Africa & APAC rose 15.4% to $428 million, Europe rose 5.9% to $258 million and Data Centers rose 17.4% to $313 million. Services revenue fell 49.2% to $51 million.

Consolidated Total Tenant Billings Growth was 1.7% and Organic Tenant Billings Growth was 1.1%. By segment, Total Tenant Billings Growth was flat in U.S. & Canada, down 2.1% in Latin America, up 11.6% in Africa & APAC and up 6.0% in Europe, while Organic Tenant Billings Growth was flat, down 2.1%, up 8.2% and up 4.2% in those segments, respectively. Cancellations reduced tenant billings by $97 million in the quarter, compared with $43 million a year earlier, while colocations and amendments added $56 million and escalations added $63 million.

Segment operating profit margins were 79% in U.S. & Canada, 66% in Latin America, 60% in Africa & APAC, 57% in Europe and 53% in Data Centers. Total property operating profit was $1,879 million.

Capital Returns, Debt and Full-Year Outlook

American Tower declared a third-quarter common stock distribution of $1.79 per share, an aggregate of $831.0 million, representing 5.3% year-over-year per-share growth. The distribution was declared on September 17, 2026 and paid on October 20, 2026 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on September 30, 2026.

During the quarter, the company repurchased approximately 1.8 million shares of its common stock for approximately $315 million, and through October 20, 2026 it repurchased approximately 0.4 million additional shares for approximately $68 million, leaving approximately $1.1 billion available under its stock repurchase program. On October 23, 2026, the Board of Directors authorized an increase in the program permitting up to an additional $2.0 billion of common stock repurchases.

Through its subsidiary American Towers LLC, the company entered into an agreement to sell 100% of the ownership interests in its subsidiaries in Canada for total consideration of approximately 288 million Canadian dollars, or approximately $202 million. The company expects to complete the sale in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

The company’s Net Leverage Ratio was 4.9x net debt to annualized Adjusted EBITDA as of September 30, 2026, with total debt of $37,579 million and cash and cash equivalents of $1,872 million producing net debt of $35,707 million. Total liquidity was approximately $10.6 billion, consisting of approximately $1.9 billion in cash and cash equivalents plus approximately $8.7 billion of borrowing capacity under revolving credit facilities, net of outstanding letters of credit. On September 14, 2026, the company repaid $600.0 million of 1.450% senior unsecured notes at maturity and issued an aggregate $1.6 billion of senior unsecured notes due 2031, 2033 and 2036, using the net proceeds to repay the 1.450% notes, to repay borrowings under its $6.0 billion senior unsecured multicurrency revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes. On October 14, 2026, the company repaid $1.0 billion of 3.375% senior unsecured notes at maturity.

For full-year 2026, the company raised its property revenue outlook to a range of $10,785 million to $10,865 million, representing 5.0% midpoint growth, and left its Adjusted EBITDA outlook unchanged at a range of $7,248 million to $7,303 million. It lowered the midpoints for net income and net income attributable to common stockholders by $30 million each, to ranges of $3,253 million to $3,308 million and $3,183 million to $3,238 million, a change made primarily due to unrealized losses for equity securities. The AFFO attributable to common stockholders midpoint was maintained at a range of $5,148 million to $5,203 million, while the AFFO per share midpoint was raised by $0.02 to a range of $11.04 to $11.16, a revision the company attributed primarily to capital allocation decisions.

Segment-level full-year property revenue outlooks are $5,085 million to $5,095 million for U.S. & Canada, a 3.0% midpoint decline that the company said includes an estimated negative impact of more than 3% from decreased non-cash straight-line revenue recognition; $1,813 million to $1,833 million for Latin America; $1,644 million to $1,664 million for Africa & APAC; $1,025 million to $1,045 million for Europe; and $1,218 million to $1,228 million for Data Centers, reflecting midpoint growth rates of 11.0%, 16.2%, 10.4% and 16.1% for those four segments, respectively. Full-year capital expenditures are expected to total $1,765 million to $1,875 million, including construction of 1,300 to 1,900 communications sites globally and $695 million of development spend in the Data Centers segment.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Vondran stated, “We delivered another solid quarter, supported by consistent leasing demand across our global tower portfolio and continued outperformance from CoreSite. This momentum, combined with disciplined capital allocation, enabled us to raise our full-year outlook for the third time this year.”

The outlook reflects management’s expectations as of October 27, 2026 and is based on stated foreign currency exchange rate assumptions for the period from October 27 through December 31, 2026. The company scheduled a conference call for 8:30 a.m. ET on October 27, 2026 to discuss the quarterly results and its updated 2026 outlook.