First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Has $1.92 Million Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lowered its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 1.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 16,197 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 268 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,921,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BOKF NA raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 25.6% during the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 4,004 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $417,000 after acquiring an additional 815 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its stake in Crown Castle by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 931,397 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $98,570,000 after buying an additional 8,136 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 30.4% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 35,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,789,000 after buying an additional 8,346 shares during the period. Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,804,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Crown Castle by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 517,964 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,816,000 after buying an additional 91,404 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen dropped 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 note on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped 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. Citigroup set a $128.00 target price on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $116.80.

Crown Castle Price Performance

NYSE CCI opened at $107.81 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $113.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.65. The company has a market cap of $46.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.23 and a beta of 0.85. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $90.81 and a 1 year high of $120.92.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. Crown Castle’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 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 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.