Baird Financial Group Inc. Has $3.13 Million Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 34,476 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 764 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $3,129,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Twin Tree Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in Crown Castle by 300.0% in the fourth quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 400 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, Bank of Jackson Hole Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at about $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.7 %

CCI stock opened at $105.00 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.20 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company has a market cap of $45.72 billion, a PE ratio of 37.23 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $101.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.86.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.96%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is -58.18%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CCI shares. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $85.00 to $105.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $108.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. UBS Group upgraded Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.41.

Insider Activity

In other Crown Castle news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total value of $384,192.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,465 shares in the company, valued at $689,944.80. This represents a 35.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $850,960.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,183,563.36. This represents a 28.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

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.