Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $116.87.

CCI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America increased their target price 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, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 747,390 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Crown Castle by 23.8% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,528,597 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,079,417,000 after purchasing an additional 3,371,186 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,105,151 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,434,229,000 after purchasing an additional 151,990 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Crown Castle by 1.1% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $603,518,000 after purchasing an additional 67,072 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,174,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $613,900,000 after buying an additional 348,296 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI stock opened at $105.44 on Monday. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $92.48 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $106.89. The company has a market cap of $45.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.39 and a beta of 0.86.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The company’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.94%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 221.99%.

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.