Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Sold by J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. reduced its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 30.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,676 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,190 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $261,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 2,262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $221,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 12.8% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 950 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 3,083 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $355,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 2,947 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HM Payson & Co. raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 2,259 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $239,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $126.00 price objective (up from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Friday, June 14th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.53.

Crown Castle Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $117.78 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. The firm has a market cap of $51.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.81 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $104.01. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $84.72 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. The company’s revenue was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.05 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is 195.63%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total transaction of $1,128,784.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,792,172.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Crown Castle Profile

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.