Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $126.00.

Several research analysts have recently commented on CCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $100.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 17th. Barclays cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $137.00 to $116.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $140.00 to $112.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 27th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $138.00 to $126.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 17th. Finally, Argus began coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Wednesday, August 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $140.00 price objective for the company.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Argent Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 12,183 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,631,000 after purchasing an additional 384 shares during the last quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 3,462 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $463,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. Toroso Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 29.0% during the 1st quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 61,463 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,226,000 after purchasing an additional 13,803 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 13,708 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,835,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 63,314 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,214,000 after acquiring an additional 1,565 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.27% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE CCI opened at $104.43 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $94.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $104.14. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $153.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28. The company has a market capitalization of $45.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.17, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.66.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.69 by ($1.08). The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.85% and a net margin of 21.93%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.85 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 7.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 29th. Investors of record on Friday, December 15th will be issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 174.86%.

Crown Castle Company Profile

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 85,000 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.