ARS Investment Partners LLC Trims Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

ARS Investment Partners LLC lowered its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 37,833 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,151 shares during the period. ARS Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $3,434,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,476,470,000 after purchasing an additional 747,390 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 23.8% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,528,597 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,079,417,000 after acquiring an additional 3,371,186 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,105,151 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,434,229,000 after acquiring an additional 151,990 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 67,072 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 7.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,174,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $613,900,000 after buying an additional 348,296 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $91.03 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $39.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.28 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $96.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $105.67. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $84.20 and a one year high of $120.92.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 221.99%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $127.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.00.

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.