Insider Selling: Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) COO Sells $1,128,784.76 in Stock

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total value of $1,128,784.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at $7,792,172.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Crown Castle Trading Up 1.9 %

Crown Castle stock opened at $107.52 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.72 and a 1 year high of $119.50. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $99.92 and its 200-day moving average is $102.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $46.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.60, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.83.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.62 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. Crown Castle’s revenue was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.05 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.82%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 195.63%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,990,991,000 after purchasing an additional 673,243 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its position in Crown Castle by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,375,567 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,310,559,000 after acquiring an additional 834,198 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Crown Castle by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,260,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,297,147,000 after acquiring an additional 1,126,394 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Crown Castle by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,478,477 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $625,975,000 after acquiring an additional 122,948 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth $581,503,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $126.00 price target (up from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Argus lowered Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $114.88.

Crown Castle Company 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.