Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Sell”

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report released on Monday morning.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $110.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised Crown Castle from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $85.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.41.

Crown Castle Trading Down 1.7 %

Crown Castle stock opened at $104.63 on Monday. 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 simple moving average of $101.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.10 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle has a 52 week low of $84.20 and a 52 week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Crown Castle will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently -58.18%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $850,960.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,183,563.36. This trade represents a 28.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total value of $2,127,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,762,542.98. The trade was a 15.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the first quarter worth $26,000. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. Twin Tree Management LP acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. American National Bank & Trust bought a new position in Crown Castle in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 62.1% during the first quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 347 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.