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

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $117.00.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective 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. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock opened at $90.73 on Friday. Crown Castle has a fifty-two week low of $90.69 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company has a market capitalization of $39.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.17 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $105.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $106.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its 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). 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.90%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 221.99%.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 107.9% during the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 159.0% in the 2nd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. New Millennium Group LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the second quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Crown Castle in the third quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.