Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Invests $1.38 Million in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 18,195 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,378,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the second quarter worth $3,326,154,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at about $594,670,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 124.2% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 6,445,237 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Crown Castle in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $456,897,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $429,341,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI opened at $76.09 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.72 and a 1-year high of $100.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.37 billion, a PE ratio of 38.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $76.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.86.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.17). Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 51.60% and a net margin of 20.71%.The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.67 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.530-4.650 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.6%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 215.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on CCI. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $88.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.