Xponance Inc. Sells 5,314 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Xponance Inc. lessened its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 67,194 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 5,314 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $6,565,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,990,991,000 after purchasing an additional 673,243 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,375,567 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,310,559,000 after acquiring an additional 834,198 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,260,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,297,147,000 after acquiring an additional 1,126,394 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $523,773,000 after acquiring an additional 632,398 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.7% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,035,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $387,333,000 after acquiring an additional 391,127 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CCI. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $126.00 price target (up previously from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Friday, June 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $114.33.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total value of $1,128,784.76. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Crown Castle Price Performance

CCI opened at $117.42 on Wednesday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.72 and a 52 week high of $120.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.03 billion, a PE ratio of 36.69 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.43. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $112.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.07.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.05 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.