Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC Trims Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 39.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 970 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 622 shares during the period. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $94,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 4,097.8% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 2,524,226 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $246,617,000 after purchasing an additional 2,464,094 shares during the period. M&G Plc purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the first quarter valued at $221,573,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 18,200.7% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,651,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $190,231,000 after purchasing an additional 1,642,432 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 95.8% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,578,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $251,962,000 after buying an additional 1,261,536 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 68,262.1% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,240,088 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $131,239,000 after buying an additional 1,238,274 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total value of $1,128,784.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Crown Castle in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.53.

Crown Castle Price Performance

CCI opened at $115.33 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $111.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $104.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $120.92. The firm has a market cap of $50.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.04 and a beta of 0.85.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.05 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.43%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

Crown Castle Company 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.