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

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the fourteen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $114.21.

Several research firms recently weighed in on CCI. Barclays upped their price target on Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $126.00 price target (up from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Bank of America lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,990,991,000 after purchasing an additional 673,243 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,078,861 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,203,648,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064,382 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,375,567 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,310,559,000 after purchasing an additional 834,198 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,260,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,297,147,000 after purchasing an additional 1,126,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $651,910,000 after purchasing an additional 2,121,603 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $97.41 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $98.31 and its 200-day moving average is $104.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.33 billion, a PE ratio of 30.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. Crown Castle has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $119.50.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.91 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.43%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.