Deutsche Bank AG Purchases Shares of 5,669,365 Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 5,669,365 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $429,341,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $594,670,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 124.2% during the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,635,117 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,034,013,000 after purchasing an additional 6,445,237 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 39,790,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,536,214,000 after purchasing an additional 3,953,685 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 591.8% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,471,120 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $431,418,000 after purchasing an additional 3,824,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 422.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,581,154 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $318,258,000 after purchasing an additional 2,895,756 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $94.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $102.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.13.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

NYSE:CCI opened at $74.45 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $79.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.41. The stock has a market cap of $31.67 billion, a PE ratio of 37.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $69.72 and a one year high of $104.61.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is presently 215.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.89, for a total transaction of $113,835.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 5,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $388,025.57. This trade represents a 22.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Crown Castle

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.