Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co Buys 2,927 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,554 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,927 shares during the quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $4,158,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,990,991,000 after acquiring an additional 673,243 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,375,567 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,310,559,000 after acquiring an additional 834,198 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 11.1% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 1,126,394 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $523,773,000 after acquiring an additional 632,398 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 10.7% during the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,035,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $387,333,000 after acquiring an additional 391,127 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CCI. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $126.00 target price (up from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Friday, June 14th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.53.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $117.78 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.18 billion, a PE ratio of 36.81 and a beta of 0.85. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $111.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.01.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.05 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.31%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 195.63%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total value of $1,128,784.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at $7,792,172.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.