Raymond James Upgrades Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) to Strong-Buy

Raymond James upgraded shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $122.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock, down from their prior target price of $128.00.

CCI has been the subject of several other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $118.00 to $102.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. JMP Securities initiated coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. Barclays upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $117.00 to $104.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Moffett Nathanson lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.12.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $103.20 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $91.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $101.32. The company has a market capitalization of $44.85 billion, a price-to-earnings 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 has a twelve month low of $84.20 and a twelve month high of $120.92.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,672,451,000 after purchasing an additional 5,934,615 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,476,470,000 after acquiring an additional 747,390 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% during 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 raised its stake 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter worth approximately $561,714,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Company 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.