Milford Funds Ltd. Buys Shares of 1,898,900 Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Milford Funds Ltd. bought a new stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,898,900 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $168,755,000. Crown Castle makes up 3.3% of Milford Funds Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Crown Castle by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,769,393 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,200,406,000 after buying an additional 386,733 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its position in Crown Castle by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 39,790,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,536,214,000 after buying an additional 3,953,685 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Crown Castle by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,728,541 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,096,587,000 after buying an additional 266,963 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,027,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,156,972,000 after buying an additional 184,533 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in Crown Castle by 40.5% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 7,159,803 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $636,292,000 after buying an additional 2,065,247 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “hold” rating and a $90.00 target price on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $102.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.52.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock opened at $92.02 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $89.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $87.72. The company has a market capitalization of $40.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.03, a PEG ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $75.96 and a 52-week high of $115.76.

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

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 175.62%.

Crown Castle 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.