Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Reaches New 12-Month High at $120.32

Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $120.32 and last traded at $120.21, with a volume of 505184 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $118.85.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on CCI. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 price objective on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $126.00 target price (up previously from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.53.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $52.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.68 and a beta of 0.85. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $109.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $103.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.05 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Crown Castle news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 75,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,990,991,000 after purchasing an additional 673,243 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,375,567 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,310,559,000 after purchasing an additional 834,198 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Crown Castle by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,260,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,297,147,000 after buying an additional 1,126,394 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Crown Castle by 1.1% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,518,000 after buying an additional 67,072 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth $581,503,000. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.