Pacer Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Pacer Advisors Inc. reduced its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 12.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 217,613 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 31,644 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $19,339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 7.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 16,444 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,714,000 after buying an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in Crown Castle by 6.9% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 87,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,000,000 after buying an additional 5,630 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Crown Castle by 3.7% in the second quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,655 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $786,000 after buying an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 49.3% in the second quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 10,913 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,121,000 after buying an additional 3,603 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Crown Castle by 5.6% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 4,955 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $509,000 after buying an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Crown Castle

In other news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total transaction of $262,470.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 5,800 shares in the company, valued at $507,442. This represents a 34.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 4,650 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.34, for a total transaction of $401,481.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 25,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,174,300.22. The trade was a 15.59% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI opened at $89.65 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $39.13 billion, a PE ratio of 37.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $75.96 and a fifty-two week high of $115.76. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $86.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $87.77.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.55. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.42 million. Crown Castle had a net margin of 25.13% and a negative return on equity of 64.64%. The business’s revenue was down 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.10 earnings per share. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.380-4.490 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a $1.0625 dividend. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is 175.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “hold” rating and a $90.00 price target for the company. Wolfe Research decreased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $114.00 to $94.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $84.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Crown Castle from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Crown Castle from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $99.39.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company’s assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.