Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Sold by Financial Counselors Inc.

Financial Counselors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 1.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 139,616 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,247 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $16,563,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 24.7% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 157,895 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $17,476,000 after purchasing an additional 31,319 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 4.2% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,088,017 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,592,000 after purchasing an additional 203,442 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 3,111.6% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 13,328 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,581,000 after purchasing an additional 12,913 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 7.9% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,059,300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $125,665,000 after purchasing an additional 77,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 2,706.0% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 105,563 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,523,000 after acquiring an additional 101,801 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price 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. Citigroup set a $128.00 target price on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.87.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $106.69 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.83 and a beta of 0.86. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $92.48 and a one year high of $120.92. The company’s fifty day moving average is $109.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $106.98. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.87%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

Crown Castle 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.