Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Short Interest Up 5.6% in December

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,310,000 shares, a growth of 5.6% from the November 30th total of 6,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,900,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Crown Castle by 15.2% in the 2nd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,325 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $716,000 after acquiring an additional 966 shares during the last quarter. Graypoint LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 28.1% in the 2nd quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 3,276 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $320,000 after buying an additional 719 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 15.7% during the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,603 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 490 shares in the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,624 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $354,000 after buying an additional 149 shares during the period. Finally, Essex Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in Crown Castle by 44.5% in the 2nd quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 4,709 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $460,000 after acquiring an additional 1,451 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CCI. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $105.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group increased their target price on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.93.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $90.76 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $101.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $106.31. Crown Castle has a one year low of $88.92 and a one year high of $120.92. The stock has a market cap of $39.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.18 and a beta of 0.86. 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 (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.90%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

Crown Castle Company Profile

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.