Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 9,265 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. decreased its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 381,501 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 9,265 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.09% of Crown Castle worth $43,974,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 8.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,078,861 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,203,648,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064,382 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 14.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,936,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,098,526,000 after buying an additional 1,496,330 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Crown Castle by 21.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,538 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $932,682,000 after buying an additional 1,818,910 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $651,910,000 after acquiring an additional 2,121,603 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,568,481 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $512,467,000 after acquiring an additional 155,543 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on CCI. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Scotiabank lowered 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 research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.29.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Crown Castle stock opened at $95.32 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.79, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.73. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $84.72 and a one year high of $123.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $103.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $105.42.

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

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.57%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

Crown Castle Profile

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.