Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $113.00.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup set a $128.00 target price on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.3 %

Crown Castle stock opened at $85.46 on Tuesday. Crown Castle has a fifty-two week low of $84.20 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.89. The stock has a market cap of $37.14 billion, a PE ratio of 30.31 and a beta of 0.87.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. Crown Castle’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. Research analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is presently 221.99%.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 29.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,243,722 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $113,465,000 after acquiring an additional 282,821 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Crown Castle by 24.7% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 157,895 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $17,476,000 after purchasing an additional 31,319 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 4.2% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,088,017 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $603,592,000 after purchasing an additional 203,442 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Business Bank purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $620,000. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,476,470,000 after buying an additional 747,390 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.