NorthRock Partners LLC Buys 2,713 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

NorthRock Partners LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 114.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,086 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,713 shares during the quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $462,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,672,451,000 after purchasing an additional 5,934,615 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Crown Castle by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,892,332,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321,249 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,119,225,000 after acquiring an additional 228,007 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $561,714,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in Crown Castle by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,144,359 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $557,662,000 after acquiring an additional 58,903 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Crown Castle news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $850,960.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,183,563.36. This trade represents a 28.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total transaction 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 $11,762,542.98. This trade represents a 15.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752 over the last ninety days. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. New Street Research upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $85.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.41.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $102.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $44.55 billion, a PE ratio of 36.28 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.20 and a 12-month high of $120.92. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $101.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The firm’s revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently -58.18%.

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.