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

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $110.00.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $102.00 to $99.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI opened at $103.61 on Friday. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $84.20 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. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $94.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $100.65. The firm has a market cap of $45.11 billion, a PE ratio of 36.74 and a beta of 0.89.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.04%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is presently -69.71%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Crown Castle by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,672,451,000 after purchasing an additional 5,934,615 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Crown Castle by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,476,470,000 after buying an additional 747,390 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in 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 worth $1,892,332,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,119,225,000 after buying an additional 228,007 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at about $561,714,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.