Montchanin Asset Management LLC Acquires Shares of 4,260 Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Montchanin Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,260 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $451,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Rational Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 164.0% in the fourth quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. now owns 264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on CCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 price target for the company. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $114.88.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI stock traded up $2.21 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $112.29. 2,232,901 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,758,421. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $100.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $102.80. The company has a market cap of $48.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.09 and a beta of 0.83. 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 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.43.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.05 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 195.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Crown Castle news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total transaction of $1,128,784.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 75,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.