Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the fourteen brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $113.00.

Several research firms have weighed in on CCI. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 13.0% in the third quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 783 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $93,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 3,869 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 2,262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $221,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. True North Advisors LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. True North Advisors LLC now owns 2,345 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $278,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Granite Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 0.5% during the second quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 19,439 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,899,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $85.46 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $98.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.14 billion, a PE ratio of 30.31 and a beta of 0.87. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $84.20 and a 12 month high of $120.92. 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 (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business 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%. The firm’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.77 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.33%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio 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.