American Tower Corp Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Michael Funk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Good morning and thank you for the question. So Steve, quick one for you. So Services revenue continues to come in above expectations, [ours] and the street. Typically, that was a leading indicator for domestic deployments. So would love to hear your thoughts on how to potentially factors in deployments in 2026? And then maybe to feather in another one, any thoughts you can also offer on how the AT&T EchoStar spectrum acquisition might impact deployments from AT&T and your expectations for that company?

Question: Nicholas Del Deo - Moffettnathanson LLC - Analyst : Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. First, on the spectrum front, the FCC now has marching orders to auction a lot of spectrum over the coming years, some of it at potentially much higher frequencies than the mainstream spectrum that we've seen deployed to date, I think potentially as high up as 10 gigahertz. Obviously, it's going to depend on what bands are ultimately selected. But broadly speaking, how are you thinking about the relevance of your Tower portfolio for potentially supporting some of these much higher frequency bands given their propagation attributes?

Question: Nicholas Del Deo - Moffettnathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. Great. Can I ask one on CoreSite as well? I thought your pre-lease shares was down to 6% this quarter. I think historically, that's been driven by larger customers taking big flows of space. I guess, should we think about the 6% as, again, just the product of the ebb and flow of larger deals? Or are you purposefully saving the space that you're developing for more of a retail SKU?

Question: Nicholas Del Deo - Moffettnathanson LLC - Analyst : Okay. So no underlying changes there? Good to hear.

Question: Nicholas Del Deo - Moffettnathanson LLC - Analyst : Yeah. Demand across the space is -- I was wondering more if it was more of a purposeful shift on your part to hold space for retail where you don't see as much pre-leasing, but it doesn't sound like that. So that's the case.

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if we could maybe -- understanding that the cost optimization program, you can give us more details when you report Q4 results? But can you maybe give us a sense of how you would frame the opportunity in terms of rough order of magnitude, directionally, how that, when you do announce it, should flow through the model? Would that be sort of a onetime thing or something that would layer in over the course of several quarters? And then maybe directionally, what are the considerations you're thinking about in terms of sizing that opportunity? Are you trying to get a sense about what is happening with the churn activity on your potential customers? Or is there any other considerations that are top of mind as you scope that out? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 28, 2025 / 12:30PM, AMT.N - Q3 2025 American Tower Corp Earnings Call

Question: James Schneider, Ph.D. - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : That's helpful. And then maybe as a follow-up, your Data Center business, I think you're guiding effectively to the midpoint of your prior guidance. A lot of your peers have sort of taken up their guidance and, obviously, the data points, as you pointed out, in terms of new business, are very, very positive across the whole ecosystem. So can you maybe give us a sense about whether there's anything happening under the hood that would mute the upside that you're seeing at least in the current business for the next couple of months into the end of the year? Thank you.

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates Inc - Analyst : Great. Thanks, everybody. Hey. Steve, I appreciate your comments in the beginning. Obviously, it's 25 years, you've seen a lot of spectrum deals and M&A. I wanted to just touch on one UScellular T-Mobile deal is closed. Can you remind us again your exposure to UScellular? And then also, interestingly, T-Mobile on their earnings call, talked about a charge and they're going to be reducing some cell sites that were not UScellular. That's the first time I've seen carriers without a deal saying they're reducing things. Do you have any extra color on what T-Mobile was talking about there?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates Inc - Analyst : Right. Okay. And then on the DISH EchoStar AT&T deal, are you guys open to like doing a negotiation with DISH to get an [NPV] value? Because we're watching that, just trying to see how long Charlie Ergen wants to keep making tower payments, but you have good contracts it seems. So just trying to get a sense of openness to trying to say, can we resolve this sooner rather than over 11 years?

Question: Ric Prentiss - Raymond James & Associates Inc - Analyst : Makes sense. One last one for me. Obviously, nice to see stock buybacks come in, an endorsement where you feel your stock price is at. Also finally, your leverage is below [5.0000 times]. How should we think about the M&A environment out there for external growth, stock buyback? And where are we at as far as private versus public multiples? So just a capital allocation question between stock buyback and M&A.

Question: Eric Luebchow - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : Hi. Good morning, everyone. Appreciate the question. Just curious, there's been some chatter around some of the new spectrum sales and your ability to monetize them, for instance, the 3.45 that AT&T is getting which they already have in the network just requires a software upgrade. Any just high-level commentary on how you think some of this additional spectrum could impact future densification demand that you're starting to see in your footprint, as you mentioned?

Question: Eric Luebchow - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : Yeah. I appreciate that. And I guess just to follow up on one more question. I know you had one customer that came off their MLA earlier this year that are on like an a la carte type of leasing arrangement. Any update on them? It sounds like things are progressing as planned. I think there was some revenue contribution that got shifted into 2026. And is there any active discussions on maybe putting them back on a holistic MLA? Or are you happy with the current arrangement you have with them?

Question: David Barden - New Street Research LLP - Analyst : Hey, guys. Thank you so much for taking the question. It's great to be back. Good to see you guys. So I guess two, if I could. So the first one for you, Rod, would be just a follow-up on Ric's question, which is just make sure that DISH is current. And under what circumstances would you guys contemplate beginning to take a reserve given the fact that there's this ongoing lawsuit between the two of you? And then on a happier note, I would guess -- I don't not to phrase this question, but what are the tower implications, potentially, for a space-based player that now owns terrestrial spectrum to see some new deployments that we weren't contemplating in our multiyear model in the past?

Question: David Barden - New Street Research LLP - Analyst : Thanks, Rod. Thank you for that, and I'll use that as an opening to ask one follow-up. I appreciate it, guys. So just as we think about SpaceX deployments, the growth of fixed-wire access with growing spectrum availability, the BEAD funding pushing fiber out, the WISP marketplace is under threat, I know that they can, in rural markets, be a customer. Is there any reason to believe that the threat to the WISP market is a threat to churn as we look forward in the business model?

Question: Michael Rollins - Citibank Cameroon SA - Analyst : Thanks and good morning. Just given the comments on EchoStar, I just had a couple of other follow-ups. The first one is you mentioned it's about 4% of domestic revenue currently. How much is EchoStar anticipated to contribute to growth over the next couple of years based on the contractual minimums that you've established? And then secondly, you referenced, I think, the long-term guidance just a few moments ago. Do you still believe American Tower is on track for its long-term domestic leasing growth guidance? And if you pull out EchoStar from that, can you share what the organic growth looks like ex-EchoStar? Thanks.

Question: Michael Rollins - Citibank Cameroon SA - Analyst : And if I could just follow up to that with one other. So when I think about when you gave that multiyear guide several years ago, there's significant change going on in the industry. And so you gave us this North Star, if you would, of where you think growth is going over an extended period of time. Do you think that conditions have changed enough and the timing is there where, maybe, not just giving a view for the next couple of years, but maybe giving new multiyear guidance when you come out with the fourth quarter results? So giving us a more extended view, an updated view of where that's going? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 28, 2025 / 12:30PM, AMT.N - Q3 2025 American Tower Corp Earnings Call

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst : Hi. I just wanted to follow up on the US business quickly. What is driving the $5 million in incremental non-rate revenue there? And then a second question on the US Data Center business, I guess the quarter-to-quarter growth was a little bit lower than what it's done recently. Was there some churn there that was a little bit higher than normal?

Question: Richard Choe - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst : Got it. And then on a bigger picture one, with the cost efficiency review that you're going to talk more about next quarter, could that also lead to some strategic changes and also, call it, CapEx changes and priorities?

Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Thanks. Good morning. Maybe just one more on EchoStar. I know that there will be more infill in the queue, Steve. But anything we should be thinking about in terms of what's next? It sounds like you expect them to continue to pay you. But is there any, I don't know, court date or any other process info you want to share with us at this point as we think about the situation moving forward?

Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Okay. And then just one more. You guys obviously went in and bought back some stock. The stock has been under pressure. I think the multiple we're seeing towers trade at, including AMT, at the lower end of where it's been in a long time. And actually, the spread between Data Center stocks and Towers has widened out significantly as well. I guess it's a long wind-up, just how you think about CoreSite's and the value of this asset. Is there -- did you look at that, the value of Data Center assets in the public and private markets relative to what's embedded in your stock? It seems like you're not getting credit for today. Is that a relevant factor as you think about the right ownership structure for this business? And are you seeing more synergies between the two businesses? You've talked about that over the years and whether that's starting to come together in your mind more.