Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 113,857 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lowered its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 49.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 117,729 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 113,857 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $11,502,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.2% in 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 buying an additional 673,243 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its holdings 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 valued at $1,310,559,000 after buying an additional 834,198 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position 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 valued at $1,297,147,000 after purchasing an additional 1,126,394 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 16.2% during the 4th 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 during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,035,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $387,333,000 after buying an additional 391,127 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on CCI. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 target price on the stock. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.53.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $115.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.43. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $84.72 and a 1-year high of $120.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $111.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $104.05. The stock has a market cap of $50.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.04 and a beta of 0.85.

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

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.