Bard Financial Services Inc. Has $922,000 Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Bard Financial Services Inc. lowered its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 7.6% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,850 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 730 shares during the period. Bard Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $922,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CCI. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth $561,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,672,451,000 after buying an additional 5,934,615 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,892,332,000 after buying an additional 3,321,249 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 37.3% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,793,842 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $525,849,000 after buying an additional 1,573,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth $95,167,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, 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 directly owns 20,528 shares in the company, valued at $2,183,563.36. This trade represents a 28.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $689,944.80. This represents a 35.77% 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.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI stock opened at $99.81 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $100.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.02. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $84.20 and a one year high of $120.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.46 billion, a PE ratio of 35.39 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is -39.50%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. New Street Research raised Crown Castle from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wolfe Research upgraded Crown Castle from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Bank of America began coverage on Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, May 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Raymond James upgraded Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Friday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.71.

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.