Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Bought by Blue Trust Inc.

Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 131.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,731 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,551 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $324,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BOKF NA raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 25.6% during the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 4,004 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 0.9% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 931,397 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $98,570,000 after purchasing an additional 8,136 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 8,346 shares in the last quarter. Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the 1st quarter valued at $1,804,000. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 2,316.5% in the 1st quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 84,409 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,933,000 after acquiring an additional 80,916 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.47.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $110.68 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.59 and a beta of 0.85. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $86.49 and a one year high of $120.92. The company’s fifty day moving average is $114.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.54.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.66%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 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.