Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has $84.00 price target on the real estate investment trust’s stock, down from their previous price target of $127.00.

CCI has been the subject of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.93.

Crown Castle Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE CCI opened at $89.26 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. Crown Castle has a 1-year low of $88.92 and a 1-year high of $120.92. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $100.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.19. The company has a market capitalization of $38.79 billion, a PE ratio of 31.65 and a beta of 0.86.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 221.99%.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CCI. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 24.7% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 157,895 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $17,476,000 after acquiring an additional 31,319 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 4.2% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,088,017 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,592,000 after purchasing an additional 203,442 shares during the period. Citizens Business Bank acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the third quarter worth $620,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 3,111.6% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 13,328 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,581,000 after buying an additional 12,913 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,476,470,000 after buying an additional 747,390 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.