Maple Brown Abbott Ltd Decreases Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Maple Brown Abbott Ltd lessened its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 8.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 876,118 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 85,290 shares during the period. Crown Castle comprises 10.3% of Maple Brown Abbott Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $103,934,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CCI. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at about $208,000. KBC Group NV grew its position in Crown Castle by 59.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 115,761 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $13,335,000 after acquiring an additional 43,385 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at about $246,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 58,210 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,705,000 after purchasing an additional 9,762 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 87.7% during the fourth quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 9,597 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,106,000 after purchasing an additional 4,484 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $126.00 price objective (up from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Friday, June 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $115.40.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $115.78 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.43. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $113.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.43. The stock has a market cap of $50.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.18 and a beta of 0.85. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $84.72 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.05 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.41%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 195.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at $7,792,172.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.