Shares of American Tower (AMT) surged 6.5% to $177.57 on July 28 after the cell-tower giant reported Q2 2026 results and raised its full-year outlook for the second time this year. The beat-and-raise quarter matters because it signals that a company once defined entirely by wireless towers is successfully shifting its growth engine toward data centers — right as AI-driven demand reshapes how investors value digital infrastructure.
Record Data Center Leasing Did the Heavy Lifting. Q2 revenue rose 4.7% year over year to $2.75 billion, with property revenue up 6.3% to $2.69 billion. CEO Steve Vondran pointed to "robust leasing demand" across the global tower portfolio and record leasing activity at CoreSite, American Tower's U.S. data center subsidiary.
CoreSite was expected to remain the main growth engine, after data center cash revenues grew 17% in Q1. That trajectory suggests CoreSite is punching well above its weight inside a company that still earns the bulk of revenue from roughly 149,000 cell towers worldwide.
The Guidance Hike Changes the Math for Shareholders. American Tower is now raising its full-year outlook for a second time.
Guidance for 2026 adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share — the key cash-flow metric for real estate investment trusts — was lifted to $10.90–$11.07. Wall Street had entered the quarter expecting AFFO of $2.71 per share; analysts also projected revenue of roughly $2.71 billion, implying a 3.1% year-over-year gain — a bar the company cleared.
The DISH Hole Hasn't Sunk the Ship — Yet. American Tower terminated its agreement with DISH Wireless after payment defaults and has treated all DISH revenue since January 1, 2026 as lost business.
Excluding that drag, organic tenant billings growth is running around 4%. That CoreSite is more than offsetting this customer loss is precisely why investors are bidding the stock up.
Valuation Still Looks Modest — If Data Center Growth Sticks. At roughly 15.3× AFFO and a 4.24% forward dividend yield, AMT trades below the REIT sector median.
RBC recently upgraded the stock to Outperform with a $205 price target, citing CoreSite trends. The open question: with management guiding for about 13% U.S. data center revenue growth this year , can that pace accelerate enough to justify a sustained premium — or will tower-business headwinds cap the upside?