True North Advisors LLC Invests $314,000 in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

True North Advisors LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 2,967 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $314,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 2,215 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $204,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 287 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 17.3% during the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 677 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 5,515 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $635,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,986 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,747,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCI has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Raymond James restated 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. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $109.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $114.21.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI traded up $1.95 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $98.45. The company had a trading volume of 476,088 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,799,308. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.72 and a 52-week high of $119.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.16, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.82. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $98.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.25.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.91 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.36%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

Crown Castle 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.