Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Increases Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lifted its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 40,096 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 916 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $4,757,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CCI. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle during the first quarter valued at $27,000. Asset Dedication LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 159.0% in the 2nd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 163.9% in the 1st quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 107.9% during the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on CCI. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.87.

Crown Castle Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $104.45 on Wednesday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $92.48 and a 52-week high of $120.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.04 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $111.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $106.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. Crown Castle’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 221.99%.

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.