Sawyer & Company Inc Sells 259 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Sawyer & Company Inc trimmed its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 1.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 21,712 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 259 shares during the period. Sawyer & Company Inc’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $2,298,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 66.3% in the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,540 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $142,000 after acquiring an additional 614 shares during the period. Operose Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the third quarter worth $30,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 93.5% in the third quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 17,099 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,574,000 after buying an additional 8,263 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in Crown Castle by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 41,233 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,795,000 after buying an additional 4,937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 62.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 7,682 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $707,000 after acquiring an additional 2,964 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $97.70 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.72 and a 52-week high of $119.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market cap of $42.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $98.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $104.74.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during 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%. Crown Castle’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.91 EPS. Analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.41%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 195.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CCI shares. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. 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 research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $126.00 price objective (up from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Friday, June 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $114.21.

About Crown Castle

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.