Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc. Sells 270 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,654 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 270 shares during the period. Weaver C. Barksdale & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,529,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $523,773,000 after purchasing an additional 632,398 shares during the period. BOKF NA grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 25.6% in the 1st quarter. BOKF NA now owns 4,004 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $417,000 after buying an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 931,397 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $98,570,000 after buying an additional 8,136 shares during the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the first quarter worth about $4,425,000. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 30.4% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 35,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,789,000 after acquiring an additional 8,346 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on CCI. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen increased their price objective 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.53.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $115.17 on Friday. 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 firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $111.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.09. The stock has a market cap of $50.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.99 and a beta of 0.85. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.05 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.44%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

Insider Activity at Crown Castle

In other Crown Castle news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.39% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.