Ascent Group LLC Has $210,000 Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Ascent Group LLC lessened its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,150 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 167 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $210,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Asset Dedication LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 159.0% during the 2nd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 163.9% during the 1st quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

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 transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on CCI shares. 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 upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $115.40.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $115.78 on Thursday. 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 fifty-two week low of $84.72 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $113.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.43. The company has a market cap of $50.31 billion, a PE ratio of 36.18 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.05 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.41%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.