Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,879 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 267 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $576,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. PGGM Investments purchased a new stake in Crown Castle in the first quarter valued at about $159,000. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 143.4% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 121,654 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,875,000 after buying an additional 71,672 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 161.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 49,930 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,284,000 after acquiring an additional 30,800 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in Crown Castle by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 269,126 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $28,239,000 after acquiring an additional 15,811 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 950 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on CCI shares. Bank of America upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased 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 report on Monday, October 28th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays raised their price objective 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. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.87.

Crown Castle Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $106.25 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.18 billion, a PE ratio of 37.68 and a beta of 0.86. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $92.48 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $109.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $107.02.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued 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). Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

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 paid a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio 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.