Bank of America Initiates Coverage on Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)

Analysts at Bank of America began coverage on shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) in a report released on Monday. The firm set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price target on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 12.35% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on CCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $108.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Crown Castle from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $99.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.71.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of CCI stock traded up $0.04 on Monday, reaching $102.36. 127,522 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,868,643. The stock has a market cap of $44.57 billion, a PE ratio of 36.29 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle has a one year low of $84.20 and a one year high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $101.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $97.49.

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

Insider Activity

In other Crown Castle news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total transaction of $850,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,183,563.36. This represents a 28.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total transaction of $384,192.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,465 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $689,944.80. The trade was a 35.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,840,605 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,175,256,000 after purchasing an additional 6,341,150 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,387,895 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,229,260,000 after purchasing an additional 538,049 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,119,225,000 after purchasing an additional 228,007 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $561,714,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,144,359 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $557,662,000 after purchasing an additional 58,903 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.