Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Friday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $106.00 to $108.00. The stock had previously closed at $93.53, but opened at $100.42. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Crown Castle shares last traded at $102.35, with a volume of 2,176,067 shares changing hands.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Raymond James upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $127.00 to $84.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $102.00 to $99.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $120.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.12.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Crown Castle by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,672,451,000 after purchasing an additional 5,934,615 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 747,390 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,892,332,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,119,225,000 after acquiring an additional 228,007 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at $561,714,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $91.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $101.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.85 billion, a PE ratio of 36.59 and a beta of 0.89. 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 Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.07%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 221.99%.

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.