Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Raises Position in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 432,184 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 7,006 shares during the quarter. Crown Castle makes up approximately 0.8% of Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System owned approximately 0.10% of Crown Castle worth $38,408,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. &PARTNERS raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 20,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,837,000 after acquiring an additional 485 shares during the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at about $157,000. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 29,277.9% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. now owns 57,287 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,079,000 after acquiring an additional 57,092 shares during the last quarter. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA now owns 2,360 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $210,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, USS Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 88,735 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,886,000 after acquiring an additional 6,138 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on CCI. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, March 5th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $84.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.52.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $88.13 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $87.69. The company has a market capitalization of $38.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.42, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $75.96 and a 1 year high of $115.76.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.55. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $995.42 million. Crown Castle had a net margin of 25.13% and a negative return on equity of 64.64%. The business’s revenue was down 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.10 EPS. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.380-4.490 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.8%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 175.62%.

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.