Essex Financial Services Inc. Lowers Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Essex Financial Services Inc. lowered its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 36.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,159 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,396 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $479,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA raised its position in Crown Castle by 4.2% in the third quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 2,215 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 287 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 17.3% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 677 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Waterfront Wealth Inc. lifted its position in Crown Castle by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 5,515 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $635,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 0.5% during the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,986 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,747,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Barclays boosted their target price on Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.29.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $97.39 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $102.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.28. The company has a market capitalization of $42.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.76. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.72 and a 1 year high of $119.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.40.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). The business had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.91 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

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. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.43%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

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.