Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Invests $205,000 in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,839 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,990,991,000 after acquiring an additional 673,243 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 1.1% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $603,518,000 after acquiring an additional 67,072 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 10.7% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,035,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $387,333,000 after acquiring an additional 391,127 shares in the last quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 19.4% in the first quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 2,632,855 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $278,635,000 after acquiring an additional 428,597 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 95.8% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,578,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $251,962,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261,536 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $106.58 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $46.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.79 and a beta of 0.85. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $113.78 and its 200 day moving average is $105.74. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $92.48 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. Crown Castle’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Citigroup set a $128.00 price objective on Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $116.87.

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.