Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Saturday.

CCI has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Truist Financial assumed coverage on Crown Castle in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “hold” rating and a $90.00 target price for the company. KeyCorp upped their price target on Crown Castle from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded Crown Castle from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Crown Castle from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, HSBC cut their price target on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $88.40 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $99.39.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $86.67 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $37.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.81, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.93. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $87.68. Crown Castle has a 52 week low of $75.96 and a 52 week high of $115.76.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.55. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.42 million. Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 64.64% and a net margin of 25.13%.The company’s revenue was down 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.380-4.490 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a $1.0625 dividend. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 175.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total value of $262,470.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 5,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $507,442. This represents a 34.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 4,650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.34, for a total value of $401,481.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 25,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,174,300.22. The trade was a 15.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CCI. Wiser Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the third quarter worth $29,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the third quarter worth $29,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the third quarter worth $31,000. KERR FINANCIAL PLANNING Corp acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the third quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 55.6% during the first quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC now owns 375 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Crown Castle Company Profile

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company’s assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.