Financial Partners Group LLC Invests $6.61 Million in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Financial Partners Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 62,480 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $6,612,000. Crown Castle makes up about 2.6% of Financial Partners Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CCI. United Services Automobile Association lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 23.1% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $523,773,000 after purchasing an additional 632,398 shares during the last quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at about $201,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle in the 1st quarter valued at about $4,425,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 8,611.0% in the 4th 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 last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CCI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $109.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Argus cut shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $114.21.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI traded up $0.31 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $97.70. 9,395,095 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,492,467. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.72 and a 52 week high of $119.50. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $104.59. The firm has a market cap of $42.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its 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 business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.41%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.