BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Has $8.13 Million Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 60.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 83,218 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 31,439 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $8,130,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 1.2% in 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. lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 7.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 11.1% in 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 in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Crown Castle by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $523,773,000 after purchasing an additional 632,398 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 391,127 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of Crown Castle 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at $7,792,172.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CCI. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $126.00 price target (up from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $114.33.

Crown Castle Stock Down 0.5 %

Crown Castle stock opened at $116.79 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $112.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $104.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The company has a market capitalization of $50.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.50 and a beta of 0.85.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. Crown Castle’s revenue was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.05 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 195.63%.

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.