Verity & Verity LLC Cuts Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Verity & Verity LLC cut its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 97.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,150 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 95,746 shares during the quarter. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $255,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 783 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $93,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 3,869 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $376,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 4.4% during the second quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 2,262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $221,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. True North Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 4.2% in the third quarter. True North Advisors LLC now owns 2,345 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $278,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Granite Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 0.5% during the second quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 19,439 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,899,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on CCI shares. Bank of America raised their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.87.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.8 %

Crown Castle stock opened at $104.59 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.45 billion, a PE ratio of 37.09 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $111.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $92.48 and a 52 week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.99%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 221.99%.

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.