AMT vs NEM: How American Tower Corporation and Newmont Compare (2026)
Last updated July 2026
Short answer
AMT (American Tower Corporation) and NEM (Newmont) share investment themes but are different businesses. The right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme.
Before you buy: how AMT and NEM affect your concentration
The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. AMT and NEM share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.
This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined AMT and NEM exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
What does American Tower Corporation (AMT) do?
American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT), founded in 1995 and headquartered in Boston, is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates, and develops multitenant communications real estate. Its core business is leasing vertical space on wireless towers to mobile network operators, government agencies, and broadcasters under long-term contracts with annual escalators, generating 97% of 2025 revenue from property operations. Beyond towers, AMT owns CoreSite, a portfolio of 30 U.S. data centers offering colocation and interconnection services to enterprises, cloud providers, and network operators, which has become a fast-growing second revenue engine. The company manages nearly 150,000 communications sites across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, providing global scale that smaller peers cannot easily replicate.
What does Newmont (NEM) do?
Newmont (NEM) is the world's largest gold producer and a leading name in precious-metals mining. It explores for, mines, and sells gold, with meaningful byproduct production of copper, silver, zinc, and lead from a global portfolio of tier-one operations across North America, South America, Australia, Africa, and Papua New Guinea. Gold is the company's core driver, and its revenue and profits move closely with the gold price, which it does not control and which tends to rise with inflation fears, falling real interest rates, and market or geopolitical stress. Newmont expanded its scale and reserves through the 2023 acquisition of Newcrest Mining and has since worked to streamline the combined portfolio around its highest-quality, longest-life assets while returning cash through dividends and buybacks. As a commodity producer, Newmont's earnings swing with gold and byproduct prices as well as mining costs. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, it is widely viewed as a large-cap, liquid way to gain equity exposure to gold, often held as a diversifier or an inflation and safe-haven hedge rather than as a steady compounder.
AMT vs NEM: how do they differ?
Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.
- AMT drivers: 5G Densification and Mid-Band Upgrades; CoreSite and AI-Driven Data Center Demand.
- NEM drivers: Leveraged exposure to gold; Scale, tier-one assets, and reserves.
Which fits which kind of investor
A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The most immediate risk is customer concentration: in 2025, four carriers (T-Mobile at 18%, AT&T at 17%, Verizon at 14%, and Telefonica at 10%) collectively represented roughly 59% of total revenue, so any material lease dispute, consolidation event, or technology shift (such as carriers building private networks or relying on low-earth-orbit satellites) could disproportionately hurt results. For NEM, newmont is a commodity producer, so its revenue and profits swing with the gold price and byproduct metal prices it does not control, and those prices can fall sharply.
AMT or NEM: which should you pick?
AMT vs NEM: the full fundamentals
AMT. AMT's trailing P/E of approximately 27x is well below its own 3-year average of roughly 45x and its 10-year average of roughly 56x, reflecting both earnings normalization after a period of large one-time items and a broader re-rating of rate-sensitive REITs in a higher-for-longer interest rate environment. For tower REITs, investors typically focus on AFFO per share rather than GAAP earnings, because the latter is heavily influenced by depreciation and one-time currency gains or losses. On that basis, FY 2025 delivered high-single-digit AFFO per share growth, and management's 2026 guidance projects continued quarterly revenue in the $2.67 billion to $2.77 billion range per quarter, suggesting mid-single-digit full-year growth if realized.
NEM. Newmont's valuation is inherently cyclical because earnings move with the gold price and mining costs the company does not fully control. A normal P/E can look low near the top of the gold cycle and high or not meaningful at the bottom, so the stock often trades on the gold-price outlook, real interest rates, and cost trends rather than trailing earnings. Rising all-in sustaining costs can compress margins even when gold is firm. Figures are approximate and move with commodity prices; verify current numbers before relying on them.
Headline figures (approximate, 2026-06-27): AMT shows revenue (q1 2026) ~$2.74 billion, revenue (fy 2024, most recent full year) ~$10.13 billion, adjusted ebitda (q1 2026) ~$1.84 billion (margin ~67%), affo per share (q1 2026) ~$2.84 (up ~3.3% year-over-year); NEM shows revenue (ttm) ~$20 billion (varies with gold prices), primary product gold, with byproduct copper, silver, zinc, and lead, gold production (2025) ~5.9 million attributable ounces, gold aisc (2025) ~$1,358 per ounce by-product basis; guided higher for 2026.
The bottom line: AMT vs NEM
AMT and NEM are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined AMT and NEM exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.
Build a basket around AMT with Walnut
Use American Tower Corporation as one constituent in a thematic basket Walnut's AI helps you assemble. Describe a thesis you believe in, the AI proposes the holdings and weights, and you approve before any broker order.
FAQ
What is the difference between AMT and NEM?
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American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT), founded in 1995 and headquartered in Boston, is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates, and develops multitenant communications real estate. Newmont (NEM) is the world's largest gold producer and a leading name in precious-metals mining. They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.
Is AMT or NEM the better stock?
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Neither is universally better; they suit different views and risk levels. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.
Which is cheaper, AMT or NEM?
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A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.
Should you own both AMT and NEM?
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Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.
What are the risks of AMT vs NEM?
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AMT: The most immediate risk is customer concentration: in 2025, four carriers (T-Mobile at 18%, AT&T at 17%, Verizon at 14%, and Telefonica at 10%) collectively represented roughly 59% of total revenue, so any material lease dispute, consolidation event, or technology shift (such as carriers building private networks or relying on low-earth-orbit satellites) could disproportionately hurt results. AMT carries $37.2 billion in consolidated debt, meaning its cost of capital is sensitive to interest rate levels, and the net leverage ratio of 4.9x leaves limited buffer if earnings disappoint. Foreign currency volatility is a persistent drag given the company's large international portfolio, and regulatory or political instability in emerging markets (as seen with certain Latin American customer events in 2025) can disrupt anticipated cash flows. Finally, the tower industry faces longer-term structural questions about whether continued 5G spending by carriers will generate the densification cycle that bulls expect, given that some analysts describe 5G as having thus far underwhelmed relative to early projections. NEM: Newmont is a commodity producer, so its revenue and profits swing with the gold price and byproduct metal prices it does not control, and those prices can fall sharply. Mining is capital intensive and carries operational, geological, environmental, permitting, and safety risks, and unexpected mine problems can cut production. Its global footprint exposes it to country-specific political, regulatory, tax, currency, and labor risks. All-in sustaining costs have risen with energy, labor, and input inflation, squeezing margins if gold does not keep pace. Large acquisitions like Newcrest carry integration and execution risk. The stock is volatile and tied to gold sentiment, real interest rates, and the US dollar. It is a cyclical position, not a steady income or defensive holding.
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Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell AMT or NEM; figures are approximate and dated (as of July 2026). Verify current data before investing.