Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fourteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $119.40.

CCI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.4 %

CCI opened at $94.37 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $105.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.40. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $134.09. The firm has a market cap of $41.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.73.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.95% and a net margin of 21.47%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.63%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 180.92%.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CCI. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at about $581,503,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 90,084.4% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,487,430 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $473,035,000 after acquiring an additional 3,483,563 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 2,296.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,885,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $262,351,000 after acquiring an additional 2,764,751 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 78.7% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,463,901 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $629,386,000 after acquiring an additional 2,405,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 42.8% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $651,910,000 after acquiring an additional 2,121,603 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.