Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday.

CCI has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group upgraded Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Moffett Nathanson dropped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Crown Castle from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.41.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $98.35 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $101.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $97.71. The company has a market cap of $42.82 billion, a PE ratio of 34.88 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $84.20 and a twelve month high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently -58.18%.

Insider Activity at Crown Castle

In other news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total transaction of $850,960.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total value of $2,127,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,762,542.98. This represents a 15.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752 in the last quarter. 0.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Twin Tree Management LP bought a new position in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Centerpoint Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Stone House Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

About Crown Castle

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.