Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Now Covered by Analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) in a report released on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued a neutral rating and a $104.00 price target on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

CCI has been the subject of a number of other reports. Raymond James reissued 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. 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. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on 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. Argus cut Crown Castle from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $113.53.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock opened at $96.66 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $104.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.42. Crown Castle has a one year low of $84.72 and a one year high of $119.50. The firm has a market cap of $42.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.21, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were given 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 6.48%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 195.63%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased 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 in the last quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $201,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the first quarter valued at approximately $4,425,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 8,611.0% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 695,163 shares during the period. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 20.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 9,762 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.