Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target to $100.00

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) had its target price reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $115.00 to $100.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Argus cut shares of Crown Castle from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $115.50.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of CCI opened at $95.20 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $104.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.75, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. Crown Castle has a 1-year low of $84.72 and a 1-year high of $131.43.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.91 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.58%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 195.63%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. United Services Automobile Association lifted its position in Crown Castle by 23.1% during the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 13,411 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,516 shares during the period. Court Place Advisors LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Crown Castle by 0.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 117,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,852,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 8,611.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $81,006,000 after purchasing an additional 695,163 shares during the period. Finally, Manning & Napier Group LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,005,000. Institutional investors 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.