Van ECK Associates Corp Has $10.08 Million Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Van ECK Associates Corp cut its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 17.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 95,286 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 20,672 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $10,084,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth $581,503,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in Crown Castle by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $651,910,000 after buying an additional 2,121,603 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 21.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,538 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $932,682,000 after acquiring an additional 1,818,910 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $201,582,000. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 18,200.7% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,651,456 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $190,231,000 after acquiring an additional 1,642,432 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CCI. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $109.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective 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, Argus cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.53.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI traded down $0.65 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $96.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 657,252 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,823,704. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $84.72 and a 1-year high of $119.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $104.22. The stock has a market cap of $41.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.21, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.83.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.91 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 6.52%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.