Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Sold by Ballentine Partners LLC

Ballentine Partners LLC cut its holdings in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 4.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,532 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 354 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $903,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. United Services Automobile Association boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 23.1% in the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 13,411 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,234,000 after acquiring an additional 2,516 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Crown Castle by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $523,773,000 after purchasing an additional 632,398 shares during the last quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $201,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 8,611.0% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $81,006,000 after buying an additional 695,163 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 58,210 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,705,000 after buying an additional 9,762 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on CCI. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Argus lowered shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, April 18th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $114.21.

Crown Castle Price Performance

CCI stock traded up $0.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $96.50. 3,620,392 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,240,931. The company has a market cap of $41.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.82. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $119.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $98.18 and its 200 day moving average is $105.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.42.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.91 EPS. Crown Castle’s revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.49%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

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.