Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Trims Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division cut its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 67.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,754 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 9,662 shares during the quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $431,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,476,470,000 after purchasing an additional 747,390 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,528,597 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,079,417,000 after buying an additional 3,371,186 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,105,151 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,434,229,000 after buying an additional 151,990 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Crown Castle by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,518,000 after buying an additional 67,072 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 7.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,174,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $613,900,000 after acquiring an additional 348,296 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on CCI. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup set a $128.00 target price on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $127.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.93.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $89.99 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $39.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.91 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $100.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $106.19. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $88.65 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 0.54.

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

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.96%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 221.99%.

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.