AMT vs TEL: How American Tower Corporation and TE Connectivity Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of July 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: TEL is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

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 TEL 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 TEL 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.

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.

Full AMT guide

TE Connectivity (NYSE: TEL) designs and manufactures connectors, sensors, and interconnect systems that move power and data through cars, factories, data centers, aircraft, appliances, and medical devices. It is the number one connector maker globally by revenue, ahead of Amphenol and Molex, and organizes its business primarily around two segments: Transportation Solutions (automotive, commercial vehicles, sensors) and Industrial Solutions (industrial equipment, energy, aerospace and defense, medical, and the fast-growing digital data networks unit that sells into AI data centers). The company is domiciled in Ireland and sells to essentially every major automaker and industrial and hyperscale customer.

Full TEL guide

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.
• TEL drivers: AI data center connectivity; Vehicle electrification and content growth.

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 TEL, tEL's largest markets, automotive and industrial, are cyclical, so a downturn in vehicle production or capital spending can pressure revenue and margins.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick AMT if you believe its drivers more; TEL if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the AMT and TEL guides.

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.

TEL. TEL trades around $200 per share for a market cap near $59 billion, at roughly 20 times earnings, a valuation typical of a quality industrial compounder rather than a cheap cyclical. It generates strong free cash flow (around $1 billion in a recent quarter) and yields about 1.5 percent. The premium reflects record AI-driven orders and steady margin expansion.

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); TEL shows revenue (ttm) ~$17B, quarterly sales (recent) ~$4.5B, adjusted operating margin ~20%, market cap ~$59B.

AMT and TEL 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 TEL exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.