Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.92 EPS

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92), Yahoo Finance reports. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 20.78%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.91 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Crown Castle updated its FY24 guidance to $6.85-$6.97 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 6.850-6.970 EPS.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of CCI opened at $94.37 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.73. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $84.72 and a 1 year high of $134.09. The business’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 current ratio of 0.40 and a quick ratio of 0.40.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 6.63%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 195.63%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,343,685 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,538,658,000 after purchasing an additional 203,085 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,046,249 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,208,030,000 after purchasing an additional 118,306 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,004,229 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $691,627,000 after purchasing an additional 435,748 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 78.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,405,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $642,077,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CCI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.40.

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.