Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Position Boosted by FIL Ltd

FIL Ltd boosted its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,528,899 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 48,892 shares during the period. FIL Ltd’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $406,494,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $581,503,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in 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 period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Crown Castle by 21.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,538 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $932,682,000 after acquiring an additional 1,818,910 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth $201,582,000. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 18,200.7% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,651,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $190,231,000 after purchasing an additional 1,642,432 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI traded down $0.74 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $99.09. The company had a trading volume of 2,013,640 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,811,745. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.72 and a 12 month high of $119.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.42. The firm has a market cap of $43.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.73, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.82. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.19.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.91 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.32%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is 195.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $109.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Argus lowered Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $114.21.

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.