Gotham Asset Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Gotham Asset Management LLC decreased its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 27.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,558 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 5,473 shares during the quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CCI. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth about $561,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,672,451,000 after buying an additional 5,934,615 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,793,842 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $525,849,000 after buying an additional 1,573,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth about $95,167,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citizens Jmp upgraded Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group upgraded Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.41.

Insider Transactions at Crown Castle

In related news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total value of $384,192.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $689,944.80. This trade represents a 35.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $850,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,183,563.36. This trade represents a 28.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

CCI stock opened at $102.30 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $101.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $97.63. 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 stock has a market cap of $44.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.28 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.20 and a 52-week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). The business had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. Crown Castle’s revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.12%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -58.18%.

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.